Michigan State Football: Looking back at 1997, 1998 coaching staff

Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker started his career as a graduate assistant in East Lansing in 1997 where he was there for two years before taking the defensive backs coach job at Miami (OH). What many people don’t know is the number of talented coaches on that Michigan State coaching staff during Tucker’s time as a grad assistant.

There is not going to be an ESPN 30 for 30 called “The Staff” based on the Michigan State football coaching staff during these years, even if Tucker ends up being very successful football coach and ends up going to College Football Playoff and even winning a national title. However, looking back, there were some coaches who went on to have successful coaching careers during those two seasons in East Lansing.

Todd Grantham was the defensive line coach at Michigan State and he ended up being the Cleveland Browns’ defensive coordinator for a couple of seasons and is now the defensive coordinator at Florida since 2018. He was also the defensive line coach for three NFL teams as well as the AHC/DC/OLB coach at Georgia for three years.

Bobby Williams who was the running backs coach during this time ended up being the Spartans head coach for over two seasons leading Michigan State to two bowl victories before being fired after a 3-6 start in his third year with the Spartans. Williams had much success as the tight ends/special teams coach at Alabama for seven years and now has that same position at Oregon currently.

However, there were two other coaches on the Michigan State staff at that time besides Tucker who went on to accomplish many things as head coaches in football.

Mark Dantonio was a defensive backs coach from 1995-2000 in East Lansing. He went on to be the defensive coordinator at Ohio State for three seasons and helped the Buckeyes capture a national championship before being named the head coach at Cincinnati. As the head coach of the Bearcats, he led them to two bowl victories and two winning seasons before taking the head coaching job at Michigan State.

As the head coach of the Spartans from 2007-2019, he led Michigan State to three Big Ten titles, two Big Ten Legends division crowns, and one Big Ten East title. He also lead the Spartans to the College Football Playoff in 2015 and he also took Michigan State to 12 bowl games during his tenure as the head coach in East Lansing. From 2010-2015, Dantonio had five seasons with 11 or more wins and during that same stretch of time had four straight bowl wins.

Nick Saban was an assistant coach at Michigan State from 1983-1987. He later became the head coach of the Spartans from 1995-1999 and he was responsible for bringing on Dantonio and Tucker to his coaching staff. Saban never had a losing season with the Spartans and took them to three bowl games. He had his best season with Michigan State in 1999 leading the Spartans to 10 wins before leaving to take the heading coaching job at LSU before Michigan State’s bowl game against Florida.

Saban went on to win a national championship at LSU but his most amazing accomplishment has been his six national championships at Alabama. Saban is also considered by many as the greatest head college football coach of all time.

If Tucker has a similar success as Dantonio did at Michigan State or if he is able to win a national championship like Saban has done seven times, the Spartans’ coaching staff for those two seasons in the late 1990s will be considered one of the most talented in history.

Time will tell but with Tucker being 8-0 and having his Spartans being ranked No. 3 in the season’s first playoff rankings, it looks like Tucker is on the path to having a great head coaching career. Regardless, it would have been great to be around that coaching staff in East Lansing during that short period of time.