Coaching Shortlist: Michigan State
Who's on the short list to replace Mel Tucker in East Lansing?
Michigan State University formally fired head coach Mel Tucker for cause on September 27 following an investigation on sexual harassment claims against the coach, per The Athletic’s Nicole Aurebach and Chris Vannini. Harlon Bennett has taken over as the team’s interim head coach, and will finish the season in that role.
In firing Tucker for cause, Michigan State has a lengthy legal battle ahead of them to stay out of a buyout. Litigation takes a long time and the Spartans will likely have to hire a coach before the looming case with Tucker is settled either in or out of a courthouse. So, we have to assume that they’ll be working as if they won’t owe Tucker the $79 million remaining on his contract. These candidates are built off of that assumption. However, if something changes legally, many of these candidates will likely be priced out of Michigan State’s budget.
Kansas’s Lance Leipold
Leipold has a history of building programs from the bottom up, first at Buffalo and now at notoriously difficult Kansas. Plus, he has experience running a football program at what’s most generally known as a “basketball school.”
Leipold has risen up the ranks of college football, taking over as head coach for the first time in 2007 at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater, which he turned into a powerhouse. During his eight seasons there, Leipold led the Warhawks to six Division III National Championships and an astounding 109-6 record overall.
Following that strong success, Leipold was named the head man at a rebuilding Buffalo in 2015. He spent the next six seasons with the Bulls, posting three straight winning seasons from 2019-21 for the first time since the turn of the century. His 24 wins in those three seasons is the most successful three-season stretch of Buffalo Bulls football history.
After his second rebuild job, Leipold took a job many consider to be among the hardest in the nation: Kansas. Following a scandalous departure from Les Miles, Leipold’s first season in Lawrence didn’t go as planned at 2-10. In 2022, the Jayhawks showed life. They knocked off West Virginia in Morgantown and Texas in Austin for the first time ever. Following a 5-0 start, Kansas jumped into the AP Top 25 for the first time in 675 weeks, and College GameDay made its first ever stop in Lawrence. However, injuries to star quarterback Jalon Daniels derailed the season, and the Jayhawks finished 6-7 with a bowl loss to Hugh Freeze’s Liberty.
In hiring Leipold, Michigan State gets a proven program builder in a similar vein to legendary Spartan coach Mark Dantonio. Leipold also brings his unique “wide zone” scheme along with him. Essentially, his offenses focus on the run, which fits the ground-and-pound traditional nature of Michigan State and the Big 10. The wide zone is built on motion, which forces defenders out of their comfort zones and forces them to make adjustments to the offense’s setup. Then, they hit the outside with powerful backs and athletic, pulling linemen. It’s unconventional for sure, but something that might be able to jumpstart this proud program.
Duke’s Mike Elko
Speaking of basketball schools, Mike Elko has succeeded beyond anyone’s dreams at perhaps the ultimate basketball school: Duke.
Where Leipold has a wealth of head coaching experience, Elko is relatively new to the position, only taking over in Durham in 2021. His first season there was astonishing, though, as Duke jumped to 9-4 and Elko earned ACC Coach of the Year honors. That season made Elko the first coach in Duke History to win nine games and a bowl game in his first season.
Prior to joining Duke, Elko served as Texas A&M’s defensive coordinator and safeties coach under Jimbo Fisher. He spent four seasons in College Station, where the Aggies had four bowl appearances and a 34-14 record. Elko’s final season with Texas A&M was his best, earning him a second place finish in the Broyles Award, which is annually given out to the nation’s best assistant coach. His defense posted top-10 marks in scoring defense (third - 15.92 points per game), red zone defense (seventh - 71 percent of trips ended with no points), yards per play (seventh - 4.66), pass efficiency (ninth - 112), and fourth down defense (35.3 conversion percentage).
Elko has extensive defensive coordinating experience, working in the same role at Notre Dame (2017), Wake Forest (2014-16), Bowling Green (2009-13), and Hofstra (2006-8).
Elko, like Leipold, is regarded as a high-character coach, and can fit into a struggling culture at a basketball-focused school. He is one of the nation’s best defensive minds, improving Duke from No. 127 in scoring defense to No. 36 and No. 101 to No. 39 in sacks in his first season with the Blue Devils. Elko’s 4-2-5 scheme is a major reason for that, built off of aggressive blitzing from different areas. Every play for an Elko-led defense includes a shooting corner, overloaded front, or complex stunts to confuse offensive lineman and get his defenders into the backfield. He often changes his blitzes and fronts throughout a game to try to catch opposing offensive lines in between blocking schemes, and his defense has always been able to capitalize on that.
While Elko doesn’t scratch the strong offense itch a lot of college football fans have, he’s been immensely successful at each stop, and can build a strong program in East Lansing off the back of a talented and aggressive defense.
Colorado’s Sean Lewis
Sean Lewis, offensive coordinator under Deion Sanders at Colorado, is perhaps the hottest name on the coaching market right now. With Michigan State being the highest-profile job open currently, it’s only fair that Lewis get a big look here.
Lewis isn’t just the young offensive mind that always springs up when a legacy job comes open, though. He’s got head coach pedigree and experience within Big 10 country. Well, traditional Big 10 country, but you get what I mean. Lewis, prior to joining Colorado and Sanders, was the head coach at Kent State in the MAC. While that may not sound impressive, it is one of the nation’s toughest overall FBS jobs, and Lewis found success there. Even though Lewis’s 24-31 record with the Golden Flashes isn’t flashy, it was still the program’s most successful period since the 1970s. Since 1962, the program has only seen 11 winning season, and two of those came under Lewis.
With those guardrails, coupled with one of the nation’s lowest athletic budgets, Lewis’s time in Kent proved that his scheme could work anywhere. And boy, is Lewis’s scheme all-encompassing. His time with the Golden Flashes saw Lewis pioneer his “FlashFAST” offense that runs exclusively out of the hurry-up and tires opposing defenses out, leading to big plays.
Lewis, paired with Kent State quarterback Dustin Crum from 2019-21, built one of the nation’s most explosive offenses. The duo led a FlashFAST offense that ranked fifth in yards per game (494.6), 10th in plays per game (75.1) and 30th in points per game (33.0). The Lewis-Crum system focused on forcing defenders to choose, with an option on nearly every play. That could mean the ever popular read option (a run play where the quarterback reads the backside defender to see if he wants to tackle the running back or quarterback and keeping it based on that read), RPOs (run-pass-options, which is similar to a read option, but the two choices for the quarterback are to hand the ball off or throw a quick route to a receiver), and tons of motion and misdirection. Coupling that with a lightning-quick offense tires defenses out and puts them in bad situations that Lewis’s teams often capitalize on.
The only knock on Lewis, though, is his inexperience. Where Leipold and Elko have massive resumes, Lewis doesn’t. At only 37, Lewis has a lot of time to grow. He is also a Dino Babers disciple, following the head coach from Eastern Illinois, where he was the wide receivers and tight ends coach from 2012-13, to Bowling Green from 2014-15, to Syracuse in 2016-17 before landing his head coaching role at Kent State.
Oregon State’s Jonathan Smith
Oregon State lost the PAC-2 championship, has no conference home going forward, and their head coach might use that as a reason to leave. Not what you want to see, but the job Smith’s done in Corvallis warrants bigger jobs looking at him.
Smith took over a rebuilding Beaver squad, and has amassed a 26-31 record in his five years in Corvallis. That might not be the most exciting, but his past two years have been stellar. Oregon State is 17-9 over that timeframe, and holds a 11-1 home record at Reser Stadium. The Beavs notched a 10-3 record last season, reaching a ranking high mark of No. 14 and first rankings in a decade and six All-Americans.
Last season’s Beaver defense was dominant, ranking first in the PAC-12 in scoring, rushing and total defense. It wasn’t all defense, though, as Oregon State tailback B.J. Baylor led the PAC-12 with 1,337 rushing yards, ad the Beavers as a whole set a program record with 6.4 yards per play.
Let’s be clear: Michigan State is a rebuilding job at a Power Five level, and Smith proved he can pull it off regardless of the circumstances. While Michigan State is dealing with the fallout of the Tucker scandal, Oregon State had to compete with their conference’s demise and are still weathering an uncertain future.
Smith, a former quarterback at Oregon State, runs an old-fashioned balanced offense. They’ve eschewed the up-tempo air raid system ran by many coaches, such as Sean Lewis, in favor for a balanced, power running attack that punishes their opponents. They even throw it back further, often times lining up with a true fullback.
Smith’s Oregon State teams lean on the run as much as possible, but they still will air it out if they want to. They’ve thrown the ball more than past years with Clemson transfer D.J. Uiagalelei now the signal caller, but the Beavers are still built and win on the ground. If that doesn’t sound like a Michigan State offense, I don’t know what does.
The only question I have is if Smith is even interested in leaving Corvallis. He was lightly recruited coming out of high school in 1997, but Oregon State’s Mike Riley took a chance on the quarterback. Smith went on to quarterback the Beavers during the greatest period in their history, winning their only PAC-12 championship and a Fiesta Bowl victory over Notre Dame where he earned game MVP honors. Smith has a lot of history in Corvallis, and I don’t know if he wants to leave that. Plus, he signed an extension going through 2029 last season that could keep him at his alma mater.
Other Candidates to Watch:
Pat Narduzzi, Pitt Head Coach
Narduzzi isn’t doing the best at Pitt in recent years, but he has ties to Michigan State as a member of the Dantonio coaching tree. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Spartans want to go back to that era, especially since they brought Dantonio back in an advisory role after firing Tucker.
Jim Leonhard, Illinois Senior Football Analyst
Leonhard was Wisconsin’s interim head coach for the final seven games of 2022 after Paul Chryst’s firing. He was considered for the permanent job, but beaten out by Luke Fickell. Leonhard is a top defensive mind, and has a wealth of Big 10 experience as a player and coach.
Brian Hartline, Ohio State Offensive Coordinator
Hartline is one of the nation’s top recruiters, but can be picky about what jobs he’s interested in. He does have an eye on the NFL and is coaching at his alma mater, so it could be very tough to pry him away from Columbus. Especially considering the promotion and pay raise he got before the season.
Charles Huff, Marshall Head Coach
Huff is the top Group of Five coach on the market, currently in his third year at Marshall. Huff has already amassed a 20-10 record with the Thundering Herd, including a shocking 26-21 upset over then-No. 8 Notre Dame in South Bend last season. His Herd have made a bowl each season, and at 4-0, have a Sun Belt title run on the horizon.
Harlon Bennett, Michigan State Interim Head Coach
If Michigan State turns it around this season, why not keep the current head man? The only problem is the fact that they’ve looked abysmal following Tucker’s departure. The former secondary coach is auditioning for the job. He had a big role in building the “No Fly Zone” secondary under Dantonio in 2015 when Michigan State made a run to the playoffs.
Matt Campbell, Iowa State Head Coach
Campbell’s name has cooled, both on this newsletter and in coaching circles. But he has ties to Big 10 country, and has basically hit the ceiling of what Iowa State could provide. It might be time for a change in Ames, and Michigan State could be exactly the opportunity Campbell needs to revive his name.