Michigan State football's Mel Tucker eager to have fans back at Spartan Stadium

EAST LANSING — Michigan State football's season-opener at Northwestern on the road proved to be Mel Tucker's first home game, in a way.

Spartan fans were loud from the start of Friday night's 38-21 win, with Kenneth Walker III's 75-yard, first-play touchdown making the presence of the pro-MSU crowd known immediately. So much so that Jayden Reed took a 15-yard celebration penalty for slapping hands with a green-clad fan in the front row of the south end zone after the score.

The next step for Tucker and the Spartans will be their first actual home game in front of fans Saturday at Spartan Stadium when Youngstown State visits for a noon kickoff (Big Ten Network).

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"They've waited and we've waited a very long time for this," Tucker said Tuesday.

It will be the first regular-season game open to fans at Spartan Stadium since the 2019 finale, Mark Dantonio’s final game as head coach in East Lansing. (Dantonio's final game overall came in the Pinstripe Bowl about a month later in New York.) Just 51,366 attended that game, and maybe around 20-25,000 remained in the cold, dreary dark as Matt Coghlin’s fourth field goal delivered a 19-16 win over Maryland to clinch bowl eligibility. MSU allowed parents to two games in 2020 before new state orders took precedence.

On Saturday, a full and vibrant crowd is expected as the absence of fans the past year and the growing buzz of Tucker’s rebuild rolls toward a crescendo.

"It's gonna be a great day to play football, so we're just preparing for that opportunity," Tucker said. "Until then, we've got a lot of work to do."

MSU opened with a dominant rushing performance, with Walker getting 264 of the Spartans' 326 yards and scoring four touchdowns on the ground. Quarterback Payton Thorne's 14-yard screen pass touchdown to Jordon Simmons and Matt Coghlin's field goal accounted for the other points as MSU posted its best scoring total since getting 40 in a 2019 win over Indiana. 

"I would like to think that it reinforces our philosophy and our process in terms of our infrastructure in our program, how we built things to have success," Tucker said.

Asked about what he saw on the game film after the win over the Wildcats, Tucker deadpanned, "How much time do you got?"

Even with all of the offensive output, he felt there were plays to be made in the passing game. On defense, he saw 25 missed tackles and the need "to be a higher percentage tackling team." He mentioned eliminating downfield passes and being able to apply more four-man pressure, too. Forcing a turnover and correcting the one they had also are on the Spartans' to-do list during practice this week.

"We didn't have too many mental errors for what we were doing," he said. "So those are things need to get cleaned up. They don't necessarily show up to the naked eye, but we know it doesn't catch up to you until it catches up to you."

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.