Michigan State Football: How will Spartans look in Mel Tucker’s 2nd season?

It was not long ago that Michigan State football was one of the premier programs in the Big Ten. The Spartans were a threat every year under former head coach Mark Dantonio and won two Big Ten championships and made three straight New Year’s Six bowls and they reached their peak in 2015 when they won the Big Ten and went to the College Football Playoff.

Since then, Michigan State has struggled mightily, outside of a 10-win season in 2017.

Dantonio was not developing the type of players that fans in East Lansing were used to and the offense was falling way behind in college football. After Dantonio stepped down, they brought in Mel Tucker and it was a strange first season for the Spartans’ new head coach.

Dantonio stepped down in February of 2020, right on the cusp of COVID-19 breaking out and Michigan State was quick to hire Tucker away from Colorado, where he had only been the head coach for one season. He was hired so late and did not get spring practice and had to deal with all of the uncertainty that came with the Big Ten season. Add it all together and you get a team that had one of the more challenging seasons in the country, but there were some bright spots for the Spartans in 2020.

After a shocking season-opening loss to Rutgers, Michigan State pulled a massive upset of their rival Michigan and also upset a ranked Northwestern team. The offense still looks pedestrian, but those victories are something that should not be ignored.

Michigan State is going to be relying on transfers and has huge question marks on the offensive side of the ball and they are going to be one of the most difficult teams to peg heading into the 2021 season.