EAST LANSING – The crowd was starting to file out of a packed Breslin Center pavilion on Tuesday afternoon.
That’s when Michigan State football’s past met up with the program’s present and future.
Second-year coach Mel Tucker walked over to talk with former coach Mark Dantonio. The two chatted briefly before the former left to continue preparing for another game while the latter has a much different schedule, now more than 19 months after stepping down following 13 seasons leading the program.
“Retirement’s good,” Dantonio said. “Everybody should try it, at least once.”
Dantonio, who has been pretty quiet in retirement, was back in East Lansing for Tuesday’s formal introduction of Alan Haller as athletic director, a role in which he as hired for last week. Dantonio served on the advisory committee for the search and recommended Haller, who played football and ran track for the Spartans and spent 13 years working for the Michigan State University Police before joining the athletic department in 2010.
“When you’ve had the opportunity to experience things that you’re leading people in, I think that gives you an up, it gives you an advantage a little bit, and he has had that,” Dantonio said of Haller. “Not only having done that but had done that at Michigan State. I think that’s been a great advantage for him and then he’s been in positions of leadership.”
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Haller was still with MSUPD when he served in the search to hire Dantonio as Michigan State’s next coach late in 2006. He also played a key role working with former athletic director Bill Beekman in the search to hire Tucker away from Colorado as Dantonio’s successor.
“I think Mel’s an outstanding teacher, football coach, innovative motivator,” Dantonio said. “I think he’ll have great success here.”
Now settling into retirement, Dantonio was at a wedding Friday night when Michigan State opened Tucker’s second season with a 38-21 win at Northwestern. He missed the very start – with Kenneth Walker III running for a 75-yard touchdown on the first play – but said he watched the rest of the game.
“Looks like the Spartans got a football team and they executed very well, got a running back making things happen,” Dantonio said. “I thought they played extremely well.”
Michigan State finished 2-5 last year as Tucker’s first season leading the program was severely complicated by the pandemic. There was inadequate preparation time and the Spartans committed seven turnovers in a season-opening loss at home to Rutgers. Dantonio was one of the 376 people officially listed in attendance that day after the Big Ten banned fans for the season.
“Eerie,” Dantonio said of the experience. “Not only first year away from football but just the way it all went down was very eerie.”
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It was a challenging first year for Tucker and the Spartans, but he has been making a point to welcome back former players to the program. Dantonio has also been around the team, including at practice in August.
“I’m very appreciative of that because I want to be around Michigan State, Michigan State football,” Dantonio said. “Very appreciative of that, that’s not the norm sometimes. So, very appreciative of that and honored to be a part of the program, frankly.”
In 13 seasons leading the Spartans, Dantonio won a trio of Big Ten titles and set the program record for wins by a head coach while going 114-57. Tucker is early in season two and just his third as a head coach.
“It all comes down to – football is such a game of execution,” Dantonio said. “So, how you execute will define what happens. Really, how the players execute on the field at game time, it’s all the difference in the world. Everybody’s got players, and I can tell you this, it’s extremely hard to win. So, 1-0, looking for No. 2 coming up but it’s hard to win and I think he’s done a tremendous job.”
Tucker got his start coaching as a graduate assistant at Michigan State from 1997-98 under Nick Saban when Dantonio was the secondary coach. He was also the defensive backs coach on Ohio State’s 2002 national championship team under Jim Tressel while Dantonio was the defensive coordinator.
“He’s an extremely hard worker, he’s an excellent football coach,” Dantonio said of Tucker, while noting their stops together. “Excellent football coach, a faster learner, puts players in the right position to be successful. I’m thrilled for him in terms of what went down this past Friday night and looking forward to the future.”
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