Changing Of The Guard, Mel Tucker Hired As The 26th Head Football Coach At The University Of Colorado

By Jordan Long

The University of Colorado football team finished the year at 5-7, a disappointment after the team started 5-0.  They fired Head Coach Mike MacIntyre on November 18^th with one game remaining on the schedule.  They started the coaching search and it ended on Wednesday with the hire of Mel Tucker.  Tucker agreed to a 5-year, $14.75 million contract.  

                Mel Tucker spent the last 3 years as the defensive coordinator at the University of Georgia under Kirby Smart.   With Tucker’s defense Georgia ended up in the National Championship game last year.  Unfortunately they lost in overtime to SEC rival Alabama 26-23.

                This season his defense helped Georgia go 11-2 and 7-1 in SEC conference play.  They had a chance to advance to the College Football Playoff if they knocked off Alabama in the SEC title game.  That didn’t happen.  His defense allowed Alabama to score 14 4^th quarter points and Alabama won 35-28.  Georgia finished as the #5 ranked team in the College Football playoff.  Instead of the College Football Playoff, they are headed to the Sugar Bowl to take on the University of Texas.

                Tucker now moves onto Colorado.  He brings 19 years of coaching experience to Boulder.  He has never been a head coach in the college ranks.  Tucker was the interim head coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2011 after they let go of Jack del Rio following a 3-8 start. Tucker went 2-3 for Jacksonville.

According to CUBuffs.com, Tucker said, “Colorado has always been a place that I thought should be relevant in national championship conversation year-in and year-out, because of its tradition and a seemingly endless list of what the school has to offer. What we have to offer are some of the best facilities in the country, strong academics, and an amazing environment as a whole.  Colorado should be a ‘no excuse’ program.  There’s absolutely no reason we can’t achieve success at an extremely high level.”

                This seems like a decent hire on paper.  Colorado hopes Tucker can turn the program around.  In the next two seasons, the goal for him is to help the Buffs reach a bowl game each year.  After that Colorado must be in the race to win the Pac-12 South Division and appear in the Pac-12 Championship game.  If Colorado fails to do so and is back to losing football games, Tucker may not have a job for long.