Colorado University Athletics
New Buffs Coach Tucker 'Can't Wait To Get Going'
December 06, 2018 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Wednesday was no doubt a whirlwind for new Colorado football coach Mel Tucker and his family.
Tucker and his wife, JoEllyn, and their sons Joseph and Christian, boarded a jet Wednesday morning in Georgia and landed at Rocky Mountain Metro Airport in mid-afternoon. There, they met CU Athletic Director Rick George and made the short trip to Boulder, where Tucker conducted some interviews before having dinner with CU officials.
Wednesday evening, he wrapped up his day with a tour of the CU Champions Center and Indoor Practice Facility. Tucker will be officially introduced to the media at a 10 a.m. press conference Thursday.
"I'm excited to be here," Tucker said. "I can't wait to get going."
Tucker's hiring completes a national search that began Nov. 18, when George announced that Mike MacIntyre would not be retained as CU's head coach. Tucker wrapped up his duties with Georgia over the weekend in the SEC title game, where the Bulldogs lost a 35-28 heartbreaker to Alabama.
Now, he is diving headfirst into his first full-time head coaching job (he served as interim head coach of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars for five games in 2011). He met with George last week and the two finalized their agreement over the last few days.
Tucker, who called the job "an opportunity I've been waiting for for my entire life," said accepting the offer to coach at Colorado was an easy one.
"It's just a great place," he said. "The tradition, the facilities, just what's possible here, what should happen. What we're going to be able to do here I think is going to be tremendous."
Tucker has seen Boulder before on a game at Folsom Field. He played for Wisconsin when the No. 10 Badgers fell to Bill McCartney's Buffs, 55-17, in 1994.
The memory obviously stuck with him.
"It was a phenomenal atmosphere, the fans were going nuts, they had difference makers on both sides of the ball," Tucker said. "Just an outstanding football team, and that's what the expectation is here."
Tucker has made a career of being around coaching greats, particularly in the college ranks. He played for Barry Alvarez and worked for Nick Saban (at three different stops), Jim Tressel at Ohio State and Kirby Smart at Georgia. He coached for two national championship teams — 2002 Ohio State and 2015 Alabama — and coached in 10 bowl games. Overall, his college teams had a 101-29 record.
His aim is to bring that kind of success and consistency to Boulder. When asked what his teams will be known for, his answer was simple: "Best conditioned, based on technique and fundamentals, smart, fast and physical. Relentless competitors."
At Wisconsin as a player and at each of his stops as a college coach, Tucker said there was one common thread.
"All those guys ... they were winners," Tucker said. "They knew how to establish a program of accountability, hard work, physical football. Very highly organized and they're all excellent recruiters."
Tucker indeed brings a reputation as a standout recruiter.
"We're going to recruit every single day," he vowed. "We'll recruit nationally, we'll do a great job in our state. We'll go to California, we'll go to Texas, we'll go to Louisiana — and everywhere else there is a player, we'll be there."
Tucker is George's first football coach hire at Colorado. It comes at time when the Buffs have some quality young talent, and George went into the search knowing he had to find someone who could take advantage of that talent and win right away.
"I think we're at a really important time in our program," George said. "I think we've got a lot of great sophomores and freshmen in our program. I think having the leadership of Coach Tuck and his staff that he puts together, I think it's going to really elevate this program."
George had a short list of qualities his new coach "absolutely" had to have. Tucker, he believes, checks every one of those boxes.
"His ability to motivate young men and to inspire them," George said. "The way he runs his defense — it's about discipline, it's about accountability, it's about toughness. That's what we need in our program. That's what Colorado has been known for when we've been successful. He's the right guy to deliver that. I think our players are going to love playing for him — and that was important to me, too."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
