November
18, 2021
We will soon learn whether Michigan State coach Mel Tucker
suffers from premature veneration. It's a projectile dysfunction that afflicts
many football coaches. It's when projections of greatness far exceed actual
accomplishments and a school or franchise vastly overpays a promising head
coach.
The coach prematurely goes limp, leaving the team, fans, and
decision-makers totally unsatisfied.
The highest-profile example of premature veneration happened at
Notre Dame 16 years ago. After a 5-2 start and reaching No. 9 in the polls, the
Fighting Irish made Charlie Weis the highest-paid coach in college football,
lavishing the former Bill Belichick assistant with a 10-year, $40-million
contract. After his hot start, Weis lost 25 of his next 55 games at Notre Dame.
Notre
Dame fired Weis halfway through his groundbreaking 10-year contract.
So here we are again. The
Detroit Free Press reported yesterday that Michigan State plans to extend the
contract of its second-year head coach to the tune of 10 years and $95 million.
At an average salary of $9.5 million, Tucker would be the third highest-paid
coach in college football, trailing only Alabama's Nick Saban and Clemson's
Dabo Swinney. Saban would earn approximately $200,000 more than Tucker and
Swinney about $8,000.
Saban has won seven national championships. Swinney has won two.
In three years as a head coach, including one season at
Colorado, Tucker has one winning season and a career record of 16-13. This
extension smells like premature veneration. Tucker has gone from dating
Instagram models to hopping in bed with Mia Khalifa, the adult film star.
The record contract might be far more than Tucker can handle.
Let me say it in a different way by quoting the street
philosopher and adult rap star Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious B.I.G.
"Mo Money Mo Problems."
Most people have more trouble handling success than failure.
There are a million books written about overcoming adversity and failure.
Success makes you an author, which is short for authority. Success means you
have all the answers. Success allows you to write your own rules. Most people
can't handle that.
Mel Tucker no longer has to answer to a boss, the school's
athletic director or school president. His critics are now irrelevant. It's
game over. Tucker hit the lottery. According to the National Endowment for Financial Education,
about 70% of lottery winners go broke in a few short years.
I get why Michigan State is paying Tucker. LSU and USC were
allegedly interested in hiring Tucker. Tucker has NFL coaching experience. An
NFL franchise would likely offer Tucker a job this off-season. The competition
to employ Tucker was going to be intense.
Plus, two MSU boosters are financing Tucker's new contract. Mat
Ishbia and Steve St. Andre, two Detroit-area businessmen, are paying for
Tucker's whopping contract. Ishbia was a walk-on basketball player on Michigan
State's 1999 national championship team. Ishbia is the president, chairman, and
CEO of the largest wholesale mortgage lending company in America. He's worth
nearly $7 billion. He previously gave $32 million to the Michigan State
athletics department.
He's a white male billionaire who loves his alma mater, loves
sports, and understands the value of good publicity. Investing in Mel Tucker is
"cancel culture" insurance. Ishbia wed himself to a high-profile
black football coach. Mel Tucker's new last name is Ishbia.
I don't write any of that to denigrate Ishbia or Tucker. I'm
writing it to explain another one of the factors that led to Tucker being paid
like he's Saban or Dabo. It's brilliant marketing by Ishbia and St. Andre.
But will all the money harm Tucker's evolution as a coach? Would
Tucker's long-term success be better served by a contract that pays him $7
million a year for five years? Will the contract and the headlines sparked by
the contract create unreasonable expectations around Tucker?
Tucker's deal will change the market for college coaches. Saban
and Swinney and others will get raises because of the deal handed to Tucker.
But the headlines about Tucker's deal will not go away. His name will be
attached to Saban and Swinney moving forward. This Saturday, when Michigan
State faces Ohio State, you will hear plenty of discussion of Tucker's
contract. If the seventh-ranked Spartans lose to the fourth-ranked Buckeyes,
you will hear that Tucker earns more money than Ohio State's Ryan Day.
Sometimes less really is more. A little less money would've
protected Tucker's growth. I
don't blame Tucker for taking the contract. I blame the overzealous boosters
and Tucker's agent, Neil Cornrich. I'm not vilifying Cornrich, Ishbia, or St.
Andre. They're all well-intentioned.
However, they're doing what serves them. Tucker getting paid as much as Saban and Swinney
serves Cornrich. Changing the market serves Cornrich. Over the next decade,
Cornrich will make far more money off the new market than Tucker will.
Cornrich can't lose.
Tucker can. The whole sports world might see him prematurely venerated on
national TV. He could end with a big pile of money and Charlie Weis'
reputation. Tucker was already making $5 million a year. He was always going to
end up with a big pile of money. This new contract puts his reputation at risk.