Michigan State's Mel Tucker: 'Right now, I'm a (expletive) football coach'

EAST LANSING — Mel Tucker broke from typical news conference coach speak and apologized to his mother.

Just in case she was watching him put the blame on himself with a salty descriptor for the problems Michigan State football’s pass defense continues to present.

The latest secondary meltdown came Saturday at the hands of Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. in the 21st-ranked Spartans’ 39-28 road loss. The former Indiana star threw for 397 yards and four touchdowns, putting the game out of reach in a first half that Tucker watched back with his staff on the plane and again upon returning to MSU early Sunday and found “exactly what we thought we’d see.”

Lack of communication. Poor technique and eye discipline. Errors in alignment. Items Tucker put on himself.

“Hell yeah, I take it personal. I take it all personal,” Tucker said Monday. “I remember one time ... while I was at Ohio State, someone said, ‘Well, you can't take that personally.' I didn't understand that. I was talking to coach (Jim) Tressel about it, and he said, 'I never met a good coach who didn't take it personally.’”

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The Spartans (2-1) open Big Ten play Saturday, with red-hot Minnesota (3-0) visiting Spartan Stadium. Tucker said his team needed its Monday morning practice to refocus from the distaste of their first loss in their first test on the road.

“We had to quickly move on and get that game behind us,” Tucker said, “because it just makes you sick.”

Tucker reminded anyone who would listen this summer that, despite going 11-2 and winning the Peach Bowl, MSU finished “dead-ass last” in the nation among 130 Football Bowl Subdivision teams by allowing 324.8 yards per game. The Spartans’ 27 touchdown passes allowed tied for 31st most in the FBS.

In shuffling roles on his defensive staff, Tucker decided to get hands-on with the cornerbacks before spring practice. Harlon Barnett shifted his focus to the safeties, Ross Els moved from linebackers to coaching nickelbacks and defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton adopted the linebackers. The mission: get the back seven of MSU’s 4-2-5 defense playing at a higher level.

The Huskies showed not much changed from a year ago.

“The reflection is, like I told the players, the resumé is on the tape,” Tucker said. “Right now, I'm a horseshit football coach. Honestly, that's how I think about it. So we gotta get better.”

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MSU suffered key injury losses in safety Xavier Henderson and linebacker Darius Snow during the opener against Western Michigan, and those two entered the season as the communicators of the defense to their teammates and speed-in-space tacklers and coverage guys in the middle of the field. Tucker repeatedly used the phrase “rat trap” to describe what he saw from his remaining secondary — meaning some players are unable to take concepts and teachings from practice into games.

“Basically you got guys in three categories,” Tucker said. “Guys you can trust and you know what you're gonna get from them; you got guys in the middle category that you feel like you should be able to trust and they need to get better; then you got guys in the category where you just can't trust them right now and you're not sure exactly what you're gonna get at all when they step on the field. So you have to make sure the guys you can't trust don't step on the field again until they get to the point where you can trust them again through practice.”

The biggest change in the second half against Washington was the benching of nickelback Chester Kimbrough for former Division II transfer Justin White. Kimbrough, a Florida transfer who moved inside after starting at cornerback last season, got beat deep and struggled with shedding blocks and missing tackles as Penix put up three scores and 278 of his yards by halftime to put the Huskies up 29-8. Though he did not need to throw as often with a big lead, Penix went just 6 for 16 for 119 yards and a touchdown in the second half as MSU managed to get within two scores in the final six minutes.

It wasn’t just Kimbrough, though, who Penix picked on. Safety Angelo Grose and cornerback Ameer Speed were frequent targets, as was the middle of the field in zone coverage that typically falls to linebackers in coverage. Another former Division II transfer, Kendell Brooks, is starting in place of Henderson at the other safety, and sophomore Charles Brantley has been starting at cornerback and rotating with former Alabama transfer Ronald Williams.

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“So that's the first thing you have to do, who we're gonna put on the field and then what changes need to be made from a personnel standpoint, assuming that the scheme is sound and things like that,” Tucker said. “We gotta be able to coach them better. And then we're gonna need to find out how we respond to adversity and how we respond to a loss. Just like how we handle success — same thing.”

And for Tucker, it all starts with himself and his staff.

“We have to coach harder, we have to coach smarter, we have to coach with more intensity, more detail, more sense of urgency,” he said. “And we have to just put more pressure on the entire situation. So that when we do go into the game, we don't go rat trap.”

Gophers WR done

The Spartans’ secondary may have caught a break Monday when Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck announced that top wide receiver Chris Autman-Bell will miss the rest of the season with an apparent right knee injury.

The sixth-year senior leads the Gophers with 11 catches and 214 receiving yards.

“If you know that a player is not going to be available, then you don't have to prepare for that player,” Tucker said. “But you still have to prepare for the other players. And they have a lot of good players and have a real good scheme and they play hard.”

Tucker did not discuss his team’s injuries. Snow is out for the season, and Henderson’s status remains questionable. MSU also played Saturday without starters in wide receiver Jayden Reed and defensive tackle Jacob Slade, and the Spartans lost starting defensive end Jeff Pietrowski to an apparent lower left leg injury in the first quarter at Washington. Running backs Jalen Berger and Jarek Broussard also remained on the sideline without their helmets in the final few minutes, with Elijah Collins replacing them.

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“Depth-wise, it's really been a next-man-up mentality for us. That's what it has to be,” Tucker said. “Injuries are a part of the game, obviously, so we need as many guys to be ready as possible to prepare to play.”

Maryland time set

The Spartans will travel to Maryland for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff Oct. 1, the school announced Monday. The game will be broadcast on FS1.

MSU, which has beat the Terps four straight times and six times since they joined the Big Ten in 2014, has not traveled to College Park since 2018. The schools had two games scheduled there in 2020 canceled due to COVID issues within Maryland’s program.

Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.

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