Mel Tucker: Michigan State football ready for 'the school down the road'

Mel Tucker wouldn't say it. At least not when it came to talking about Michigan State football's next opponent.

The word "Michigan" barely rolled off the lips of the Spartans' first-year coach during his news conference Tuesday ahead of Saturday's game in Ann Arbor against the Wolverines (noon/Fox).

He used it when discussing all the historic rivalries in football history.

But when it came down to discussing this week's game?

"I don't think there's any question for me who were playing this week," Tucker said on a video call Tuesday. "So, it's the school down the road. I think we all know who that is."

[ For Michigan football, rivalry with MSU has become just 'another game' ]

Perhaps it was coincidence or maybe it was premeditated, but Tucker took a page out of the Ohio State playbook and terminology for "That Team Up North." He once slipped and used the phrase "up the road" Tuesday but only uttered the M word to discuss "Ohio State-Michigan, Michigan-Michigan State" in the context of great college and pro football rivalries he has been a part of. Others Tucker mentioned were Alabama-Auburn, Georgia-Florida, Steelers-Browns and Bears-Packers.

He spent four years at Ohio State as an assistant coach under Jim Tressel, three as defensive backs coach from 2001-03 and then co-defensive coordinator in 2004. The Buckeyes were 3-1, only losing the 2003 game to the Wolverines. When Tucker was a graduate assistant with the Spartans under Nick Saban in 1997 and '98, he got his first taste of the MSU-Michigan rivalry. Tucker worked alongside former MSU coach Mark Dantonio in those two years on Saban's Spartans staff and then again under Dantonio with the Buckeyes.

Tucker said he heard about the MSU-Michigan rivalry when he was a player at Wisconsin, but he picked up a lot from Saban's approach to facing the Wolverines that he hopes to carry into his first time as a head coach in it.

"I've had some pretty good mentors. that I've worked with that embraced rivalry games. And obviously, at that time with coach Saban, it was made to be a special game," Tucker said. "There was emphasis put on it. And I can remember the intensity going into that game and the preparation. When you have these rivalry games, it's just different, there's just no way around it."

As for the matchup, Tucker said he expects "probably one of the most physical games we play all season" against the Wolverines. U-M is a 25-point favorite coming off its 49-24 win at Minnesota and MSU's 38-27 home loss to Rutgers.

The Wolverines have won two in a row in the rivalry for the first time since 2006-07 after Dantonio owned a dominant 7-1 stretch from 2008-15. The game will be at Michigan Stadium for the first time in back-to-back years since 1967-68. And it'll be played in front of quite likely the smallest crowd in the history.

Not that the pandemic will stop fans' trash talking.

"There's not a day that goes by where you don't hear about this game from someone in one way, shape or form," Tucker said. "That's what makes college football special, these types of rivalries, and that's what makes it special to be here at State. .. Obviously this game against the school down the road, it's not just another game. It's special to me, it's special to our players. It's very important to our coaches, to our former players, to our fans and to the people of Michigan.

"It's a special game, and we treat it as such."

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 ready for 'the school down the road'