What Tucker is watching for in Michigan State’s big week in preseason camp
EAST LANSING — Mel Tucker explained Monday afternoon what he tells Michigan State football’s quarterbacks who are competing for the vacant starting job about the importance of their body language. Particularly after Spartans’ first scrimmage of preseason camp Saturday.
A reporter quickly tried to work that into the next question during Tucker’s news conference.
“Where you want to see the team improve the most so you’re not having times where you’re putting your head down in practice?”
Tucker paused. He asked the reporter to repeat his question.
“Where do you want to see the team improve the most with about 15 practices left?”
The fourth-year coach wasn’t about to ignore the omitted portion.
“OK,” Tucker said, hesitating for a second before clarifying. “I haven’t been at practice with my head down since we’ve been at this. It rarely happens in games. That’s not part of what you’re going to see from us.
“What else you want to know?”
MSU’s 10th practice wrapped up Monday morning, and Tucker’s tone shifted distinctly from opening-week conviviality. Coming off the Spartans first scrimmage, which was closed to the public and media, he sounded almost as if game day was fast-approaching.
Because it is. Only 18 days remain before the Spartans’ Sept. 1 season-opener against Central Michigan. And while Tucker said “We got a lot of work done” Saturday, much more remains.
“Every day, we’re trying to separate guys. We’re trying to put them in positions, and I haven’t really seen anyone back down — I mean, I’ve actually seen guys get tougher out there,” he said. “It’s gonna be interesting to see how good we get and how much improvement we make this week and then in the scrimmage, because that’s when I really start honing in on, ‘Who are the guys? Who can make plays?’
“You may call that separating the men from the boys, but we actually really need everyone to be good. That’s the only way we can have a good team. … We can’t have 30 or 40 good players and the rest of the guys can’t play. We don’t really even coach like that. So I don’t even want the men over here and the boys over here, because that’s how we need to be – we need everybody to be over here. And that’s every day.”
Tucker said these scrimmages are important to establishing the Spartans’ depth chart and ironing out the position competition “because it’s the closest to a game that we can get.” He also cautioned, “It’s not everything, it’s a part of the picture, though, a part of the puzzle.”
Typically after the upcoming second scrimmage, Tucker said, separation tends to become clearer. He and his staff will create a scout team after that, shifting reps to the first- and secondteam units. It also is a point where the coaching axiom Tucker loves — “Your best ability is availability” — becomes increasingly critical. Even though he usually does not discuss injuries and specifics.
But he also put out the call for urgency to his younger guys and depth players that every snap from here out is critical to their future.
“We gotta keep guys on the field so we can get better,” he said. “We have enough good players to be good, we just don’t have enough good players to have a lot of guys hurt and still think we’re gonna be good. … I don’t think we have a shortage of playmakers. It’s going to be about execution and staying healthy.
“We gotta get the horses to the race, and we gotta keep them out there.”
The majority of questions for Tucker were about the quarterback competition between Noah Kim and Katin Houser, with the coach continuing to call it a three-man race with freshman Sam Leavitt despite often finding himself saying “both” or “two” before correcting himself.
However, without tipping his hand toward a decision that could take the rest of camp and beyond, Tucker emphasized the need for leadership from that position.
“Body language is big,” he said. “Being able to go on to the next play, because everyone is watching the quarterback and the head coach. When something bad happens, everybody’s gonna turn and look at me. On offense, everyone’s gonna look at quarterback, everyone. So you have to have poise, you have to be able to go to the next play and have mental toughness.
“Our guys are doing that, and they’re getting better at that. When you have guys who really want to be good and they’re competing hard, when things don’t go right, guys are disappointed, right, because they want to win — they want to win a job, they want to win the down, they’re competitive guys. There is a fine balance between how you react after negative plays. It’s not like, ‘Oh, it’s OK, don’t worry about it.’ No, it’s not OK, and we do need to fix some things, so you don’t want to have unearned positivity. But at the same time, you gotta be able to learn from the last play, good or bad, and then move on quickly.”
Then came Tucker’s misinterpreted comment.
“Like I told the quarterbacks,” he said, “how would it look if you threw an interception and saw me bent over with my head down for 10 seconds on the sidelines? That’d be demoralizing to you and our team. I can’t do it. So I got to learn from it, and I gotta move on to the next play, and I got to help guys get better the next play. Same thing with the quarterback spot. So we’re getting better at that. I like what I’m seeing so far.”
His trigger tripped by the mischaracterization about his own body language, Tucker turned to what he feels MSU must improve and launched a 2-minute dissection of his biggest concerns: running the ball better and stopping opponents on the ground.
On offense, Tucker said he won’t always pin problems on the offensive line and needs his tight ends to block better and his running backs to hit the holes more authoritatively. It also comes down to quarterbacks moving in and out of plays with precision, avoiding calling run plays into a stacked side of the field.
On defense, Tucker boasted about the strength of his front seven – his defensive line “huge” and his linebackers “nice-sized dudes. However, the interconnectivity with the back end also was a point of emphasis.
His verdict after 10 practices?
“I just to know exactly what to expect when we go out there and play in that first game,” he said. “Right now, I’m not exactly sure.”
csolari@freepress.com