Tom Izzo admits he was surprised by Michigan State’s drastic turnaround on the football field

Michigan State’s 6-0 start has caught plenty of people off guard, and head basketball coach Tom Izzo is among those that are surprised.

The results in the 2020 campaign – Mel Tucker’s first with the Spartans – were not great. Michigan State did engineer 2 upsets, but those were the only victories for the year.

Now, Tucker has the Spartans bowl eligible in Year 2 with 6 games still to play. Izzo also addressed the start during the week, admitting he has been “happily surprised:”

“I am surprised a little bit, but I think Mel’s done an incredible job,” said Izzo in a video from Spartan Tailgate. “It’s really kind of fun when you see a quarterback like Thorne…he’s done an incredible job and those receivers have all just risen up.

“But I am, I’m happily surprised. It’s been a fun team to watch and follow…I just like the energy.”

Now, Izzo says it will be interesting to see how the Spartans handle the success and the big games still to come down the stretch:

“How do you handle success, that’s the next thing,” explained Izzo, “and how do you handle these big games.”

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.