A former Badger picks up a Big Ten head coaching job.
Mel Tucker, who played defensive back for the Wisconsin Badgers in the early 1990's, will move from Colorado to Michigan State as the head coach of the Spartans program.
Tucker coached Colorado for one season, going 5-7 in his lone year at the school.
After Wisconsin, Tucker has had plenty of stops on his coaching journey. In addition to Colorado as the head coach for a year, Tucker spent the prior three seasons as Georgia's defensive coordinator. In 2015, Tucker was a defensive assistant for the national champion that season, Alabama.
Prior to his return to college football, Tucker spent a decade in the NFL, including seven seasons as a defensive coordinator and five games as the interim head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tucker went 2-3 in that stint, and also had stops in Cleveland, his hometown, and Chicago.
Tucker's start in college came under Nick Saban at Michigan State in 1997, and he moved on to coaching gigs with Miami (Ohio), LSU, and Ohio State before making the jump to the NFL.
At Wisconsin, Tucker lettered three times for coach Barry Alvarez, and graduated in 1995 from UW.
Wisconsin doesn't play Michigan State in Big Ten play until 2022 in East Lansing. The Spartans don't come to Camp Randall until 2025.
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