EAST LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Involved in his community East Lansing, Michigan State’s Mel Tucker makes has made a difference outside of football and with his program. The third year head coach at MSU helps with the Greater Lansing Food Bank, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and Special Olympics. On top of that, he recently had a life-changing experience participating in a trip to Montgomery, Alabama to Selma.

With the involvement in the community, Tucker has continued to build his program and make changes. He says, “We have shifted our culture at MSU. It’s a culture that is rooted in relentless mindset in everything we do. Culture is how we live and behave every single day, a culture of accountability, attention to detail, sense of urgency, connection, being authentic, being real, and good old-fashioned hard work. You roll your sleeves up and figure out a way to get the job done.”

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Part of the way that MSU is getting the job done is combining great recruiting and using the transfer portal. Heading into this season, this 2022 class reporting was 23rd in the nation with 23 commits. Combining that with the transfer portal, Tucker will have a team to reckon with this year.

He says, “We embrace the portal. We’re going to build our team through the high school ranks. It’s very similar to what we did while I was in the NFL. You want to build through the draft. You complement or supplement your roster through free agency. So the high school ranks for us is the draft. The portal is free agency.”

Two of the transfers that MSU have brought in are Jalen Berger and Jarek Broussard. Berger makes the transfer from Wisconsin and Broussard from Colorado. Both played two years at their former schools and Broussard adds the most experience with 1,556 career rushing yards and seven touchdowns.

“These two guys were obviously portal guys for us that made our team better and made our running back room more competitive,” says Tucker. “Broussard, he played for us at Colorado when I was there. Tremendous, tremendous back. Super hypercompetitive. Berger came to us midyear in January. He’s a very talented young man, very talented. He’s really started to bond with his teammates, and he’s really opened up.”

Coming off an 11-2 season and winning the Peach Bowl, MSU has high hopes for the 2022 season. A year ago at this time the program wasn’t sure what was to come. Now, the Spartans have a program on the rise and will be in the top tier of the Big Ten.

“We just keep chopping wood every single day. We’ve got something to prove. We took a step in the right direction. We’re not where we want to be. There’s laser focus, and there’s hunger. We’ve got a chip on our shoulder. All our guys are bought in, the coaches and players. So it’s just a matter of continuing to work our butts off,” said Tucker.