Mel Tucker has had a bit of a rocky debut in East Lansing, and he made one interesting comment about recruiting Tuesday evening.

By now, fans know all about the struggles of the Spartans. A defense that has allowed 38+ points twice in four games this season. An offense that has been a turnover machine – save for one game – that has scored seven or fewer points twice, including a shutout by Indiana.

The bright spot, and really the only one to this point, is the upset of Michigan in recapturing the Paul Bunyan Trophy in Week 2. Fortunately for Tucker, that is one bright spot that will allow some fans to gloss over the struggles of Year 1 under Tucker.

The next step for Tucker is to improve recruiting at Michigan State, something that tailed off significantly over the final couple of seasons during the Mark Dantonio era. Tucker even said a coach that cannot recruit at Michigan State simply cannot recruit:

That is definitely putting down the gauntlet for himself in East Lansing, and there is still plenty of work to do. Michigan State’s 2021 recruiting class is currently ranked No. 10 in the B1G and No. 41 nationally by 247 Sports. The 2022 class is not much better, currently ranked No. 9 in the conference and No. 37 nationally.

To his credit, Tucker was hired late in the offseason, during a wild month of February for the program. That also means he had just over a month on the job before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown sports. A recruiting dead period has also been extended well into 2021 which puts a damper on what Tucker can do quickly.

Time will tell if Tucker can live up to his comments from Tuesday evening.