Michigan State football: Has Mel Tucker coached his last game?

Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker is in hot water after a harassment case was made public. Has he coached his last game?

If you went to bed early last night, you missed what can only be described as a whirlwind of horrible news hitting social media shortly after midnight. Dan Murphy of ESPN reported that Mel Tucker had been the subject of a sexual harassment case and a story about 15 minutes later by USA Today broke confirming details of the accusation.

None of it was good. There was no “it looks bad, but” feeling after reading either piece.

Tucker claims he had a consensual sexual interaction over the phone with rape survivor Brenda Tracy who he brought in to speak with the team and repair relationships between MSU athletics and survivors. The optics were immediately horrid.

Even if Tucker is telling the truth and this was a consensual action, it’s quite possibly the dumbest mistake anyone could ever make. How could you possibly perform such an act with a survivor while on a trip (recruiting maybe?) funded by the university? How could you think this was even slightly morally acceptable?

While I’m going to hold on to my opinions for now and wait for more to come out before I make definitive statements, I do believe that this has probably marked the end of the Tucker era in East Lansing.

Has he coached his last game at Michigan State?

My honest guess would be yes. He’ll likely have to be suspended indefinitely until the investigation concludes (Oct. 5 is the court date, I believe) or step down on his own. I think that will happen within the next 24 hours. There’s just no way he can honestly stand in front of the media on Monday for his weekly presser and act like nothing happened. This has been a media firestorm already and it’s only going to get worse if he remains on the sidelines (he can’t).

I don’t believe he coaches the Washington game (obviously) and I don’t think he gets back on the sidelines before the court case in October. Once that concludes, the university will have a decision to make. It likely won’t be a good one for Mel Tucker.

It’s a sad, disappointing day. And I do believe we’ve seen him coach his last game at MSU.

It’s time to rally together to support the players who don’t deserve to go through this.