How Mel Tucker, Michigan State football is a road map for Akron's rebuild

EAST LANSING — Joe Moorhead returned to Akron in the offseason, a place he and his family felt to be a second home.

The Zips' new head coach brought along more than just his wife and three children.

Moorhead took a similar approach to upgrading his new roster that Mel Tucker did a year ago with Michigan State football, with Akron adding 40 new players — more than half from the transfer portal — in an attempt to jumpstart a rebuild for the Mid-American Conference's perennial East Division cellar-dweller.

The initial result proved favorable, albeit a show of how much work is ahead for the former Mississippi State head coach. The Zips rallied at home, 30-23 in overtime, in their opener to defeat Football Championship Subdivision opponent St. Francis (Pennsylvania) last Thursday.

RAINER SABIN:Why MSU pass rush guru Brandon Jordan's job just got a lot bigger

“I think the positive aspect is talking about culture and our ability to respond to prosperity and adversity and going through a game where there were multiple opportunities for us to throw our hands up and hang our heads and turn it down,” Moorhead told reporters Tuesday in Akron. “We kept fighting and kept scratching and clawing and found a way to end it. It really reinforced the message that our staff has been delivering to our kids for an extended period of time now.”

No. 11 MSU, which opened with a workmanlike 35-13 win over MAC foe Western Michigan on Friday, hosts Akron at 4 p.m. Saturday at Spartan Stadium. It's the first meeting between the two schools since 1913-14, which the Spartans won by combined scores of 116-6.

That might be ancient history, but the recent past for the Zips hasn’t been much better.

IT STARTS WITH ME:Mel Tucker demands 'a higher level' from players, and himself

Akron went a combined 3-27 the past three seasons under coach Tom Arth, outscored by an astounding 690 points (1,157-467) combined in those games.

Enter Moorhead, who is considered the godfather of the read-pass option offense, which he helped create as head coach at Fordham before taking it to Penn State as offensive coordinator for two seasons (2016-17). From there, he landed at Mississippi State, which fired him in 2020 after three seasons as head coach, and he spent the past two seasons directing Oregon’s offense, which averaged 31.4 points and 417.7 yards in 21 games with him as offensive coordinator.

Moorhead’s move to the MAC surprised some, but the Pittsburgh native was an assistant coach for the Zips from 2004-08 and has said it was appealing to be closer to family in Western Pennsylvania. And he quickly turned over the Zips’ roster upon his arrival in December.

Akron followed the blueprint Tucker provided by mining the transfer portal as well as adding 18 true freshmen. The Zips added four-star offensive lineman Anthony Whigan and wide receiver Daniel George from Penn State, along with former three-star talent in tight end Caden Clark from Alabama, running back Cam Wiley from Minnesota, defensive end Victor Jones from Wyoming and receivers Alex Adams from LSU and Shocky Jacques-Louis from Pitt. Moorhead also inherited a pair of 2021 MSU transfers in linebacker Jeslord Boateng and running back Anthony Williams, as well as safety Jaylen Kelly-Powell (Detroit Cass Tech) from Michigan.

“I think it was 40 new players on the roster for this season, I think 23 or 24 were portal guys and probably half of that number on defense,” Moorhead said. “A lot of them have been here since January, so they've had an opportunity to be with our coaching staff, our strength and conditioning guys and get to know their teammates.”

THE PORTAL:Michigan State lands transfer LB Ken Talley from Penn State

MSU quarterback Payton Thorne said the offense is watching plenty of film on Oregon State’s defense from a year ago, which was under the direction of new Akron defensive coordinator Tim Tibesar.

There will be more film for the defense to digest beyond the St. Francis game and Moorhead’s other previous coaching stops. David Gilbertson came with Moorhead from Oregon and shares the passing game coordinator role with former Ohio State graduate assistant Billy Fessler. Joel Rodriguez arrived from Florida International to coordinate the run game.

“We only have one game really of Akron film to watch,” Thorne said Tuesday. “We'll watch their players from last year a little bit, but they play a lot of guys. They played a ton of guys, this past week against St. Francis. … And so we're preparing and looking to execute our stuff and looking to be the best that we can be and put a good product of football out there this weekend”

Moorhead said “everything about (the Spartans) worries me to a certain extent,” but particularly Thorne, who went 12-for-24 for 233 yards, four touchdowns and an interception in MSU's win over Western Michigan. He said he got to know MSU’s second-year junior starter while recruiting him “a little bit” at Penn State and called the challenge of facing Thorne and his offensive line “a very significant one.”

“Particularly because the O-line can protect,” Moorhead said. “They do a great job of mixing play-action passes off their most effective runs, so our DBs have to have great eye discipline when we're in zone. And then when we're in man-to-man, whether it's off or it's press (coverage), we got to do a great job, because the receivers all have good size and play the ball well in the air.”

Week 1 for the Zips proved to be a struggle, against a lower-division FCS team that finished below .500 a year ago.

NEXT MAN UP:How MSU will recover, support Darius Snow after season-ending injury

Akron gave up 436 yards to the Red Flash — 247 through the air and 189 on the ground. It needed an interception in overtime by cornerback Tyson Durant to hold off St. Francis.

Offensively, the Zips had just 374 yards, including less than 100 on the ground after negative rushes were factored in. Quarterback DJ Irons — a 6-6, 205-pound Georgia native and 2021 transfer from Iowa Central Community College —went 24-for-39 for 273 yards with two touchdowns. Jacques-Louis, who played against the Spartans in the Peach Bowl and had a catch for 5 yards for Pitt before entering the portal a day later, looked sharp in his Akron debut with eight catches for 122 yards and a score. Wiley ran 21 times for 84 yards and two scores, including the game-clinching 1-yard plunge in OT.

Moorhead said he feels winning their opener should help the Zips “eliminate the pre-game jitters” as they venture into a hostile Big Ten road environment.

“For everybody in all three phases, you add 40 new people, a new staff, three new schemes and doing it for the first time where they're keeping score and you can't blow the whistle and say, 'Run it again' like during practice, when there's really not a repercussion for a negative play,” Moorhead said. “So I think that played a part of (the struggles). … We played together. Hopefully the adage that a team improves the most between Weeks 1 and 2 holds true.”

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.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football, Mel Tucker are a road map for Akron