After Michigan State was embarrassed by Ohio State last season, Mel Tucker made a promise in a quiet interview room in Columbus: "Recruiting is where we’re going to close the gap."
"We're going to recruit like crazy," he said. "We're going to be relentless in doing that -- and we’re built to do that. We’re built to recruit at a high level."
Tucker has followed through this summer. The full fruits of his labor won’t be known until next winter, but Tucker and the Spartans spent most of the past three months pursuing – and in some cases landing – scores of high-profile recruits in the class of 2023. On one weekend in June, Tucker said Michigan State had 14 prospects and their families on campus. One weekend after hosting five-star DL David Hicks from Texas, they hosted five-star OL Samson Okunlola from Massachusetts.
“It was recruiting wall to wall, day in and day out, and that’s the lifeblood of our organization,” Tucker said Thursday on the Valenti Show with Rico. “We need to be able to get the best players in order to have the program we want. What stood out to me was that there’s players from East Coast, West Coast, North, South, very interested in Michigan State and we’re in the mix with a lot of really, really good football players. We have commitments from some, some we don’t have yet, but we’re in the game. And that was the goal.”
Tucker pulled out all the stops, on social media and in person. He posed in front of fancy cars on the Spartan Stadium grass and gave recruits a taste of the high life at his glamorous East Lansing home. He made Michigan State glitter.
In June, the Spartans landed LB Jordan Hall from Florida over the likes of Florida and Notre Dame. In August, they landed OT Stanton Ramil from Alabama over the likes of Clemson and LSU. Lest anyone think the Spartans were neglecting their backyard, they landed DL Jalen Thompson from Detroit over the likes of Michigan and Ohio State that same month. And in July they landed the big one, or at least the biggest one yet, DE Bai Jobe who also had offers from Georgia and Alabama. He’s the top-rated player in his class in the state of Oklahoma and the highest-rated recruit of Tucker’s tenure.
“The goal was to go out and target the best players and go after and get those guys. Find a way to get it done, to finish first in these recruiting battles, which are long battles, ruthless battles. NIL has become huge in recruiting now, so it’s treacherous. But we’re in it to win it,” said Tucker. “We need to get the best players and a lot of those players were on campus in June and they’re going to be here in the fall, they’re going to come watch us play. And after the season, we’re going to have some official visits and we’re going to keep pounding, keep hammering to make sure we get the best players in here.”
Michigan State’s 2023 class, which already features 10 four-star recruits, currently ranks No. 23 in the nation, per 247 Sports. It also ranks No. 3 in the Big Ten, behind only Ohio State and Penn State. It hasn’t had a class finish that high in the conference since 2016, when the Spartans were fresh off a trip to the College Football Playoff. They’re fresh off an 11-win season and a victory in the Peach Bowl in year three under Tucker, who has the resources he needs to compete in a recruiting landscape where Name, Image and Likeness opportunities – that is, cash grabs – play an increasingly big role. He also knows NIL is one factor in a much larger decision.
“The key to it is to find out, where do the kids want to go to school? Where do they want to play? Aside from NIL, where do they want to go to school, who do they want to play for — head coach, coordinator, position coach — who do they really trust? Who do they really believe in? Who do they really think can get them where they need to do? That’s the key, and there is an extra layer. It takes more time. It’s like there’s a fog, because of NIL and things like that, so you have to sort through it and keep hammering and keep banging because at the end of the day, the truth comes out.
“At the end of the day, when it really gets down to it, people are going to go where they feel like they can trust the coaches.”
Asked if he ever throws his hands up if and when the NIL conversation obscures the rest of a recruiting battle, Tucker said, “We don’t do that. We’re not throwing our hands up. They don’t sign until December and then some in February, so there’s a long, long way to go with this.”
He also said, like most coaches, that Michigan State isn’t all that interested in players who are focused more on building their brand than playing football.
“It’s not a bad thing for them to want to build their brand and we want to help them build their brand once they get there, but we’re looking for guys that are going to keep the main thing the main thing. And there’s a lot of guys out there,” said Tucker. “Everyone is not for us, and that’s part of the evaluation process. And guys mature. Some of these guys are 16, 17 years old, so this is a two-year, three-year process with some of these guys. Maybe it starts off as being (more about) the brand and then as they take more visits and see more things and it becomes more real, they start to realize, hey, this is what’s really important. And we help them along the way to see that.
“So it’s process with it. And at some point, we have to make a decision and they have to make a decision.”
More highlights from Tucker’s interview on 97.1 The Ticket:
On the challenge of keeping his players hungry after an 11-2 season: "I think it's always a challenge, no matter how much success you’ve had any season. I think it’s just human nature to seek comfort. We certainly can’t afford to do that, so our program is set up for our players not to be comfortable, as well as the coaches, including myself. For us to seek comfort would be insane. We have to be comfortable being uncomfortable, I can say that, and we have to work hard to be better every day and keep a chip on our shoulder and stay hungry and not be complacent in anything we do."
On expectations for this year's offense: "You need guys that can win one on one and we feel like we have guys that have the potential to be able to give people problems, one on one in the pass game, hardcore and physical and tough in the run game. We have receivers that we feel like can win one on one, we have backs, we have a quarterback that can be efficient, that can lead and compete at a high level, a line that get some movement and protect the quarterback. We’re going to have to get it done as a unit. We’re not going to leave it up to one guy. That has never been our intention to leave it up to one guy. We can’t get it done like that. We’re going to have to complement each other and get it done as a team."
On exceeding last year's success: "We already stated our goals. Our goal as a program is to win every game on our schedule and it’s going to be like that every season. So now, once we state the goal, we don’t need to talk about it anymore. It’s about, OK, what is the process? What do we have to do on a day-to-day basis, why are we doing what we’re doing? How do we stay hungry? How do we play smarter, how do we play faster, how do we play physical? What do we have to do on a day-to-day basis to get what we want? It’s the choices and decisions that we make daily that lead to behaviors and actions, which in turn lead to outcomes. So how do we exceed (last season)? Listen, it’s one play at a time, six seconds a play."
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