Mel Tucker Suspended Without Pay, Hearing Pending
I’m shocked it happened this fast, but viewed in the shadow of the Nassar incident also not surprised. Really hope they can get their act together organizationally, football be damned.
EDIT - changed title to reflect actual known state of things - LSA
September 10th, 2023 at 4:20 PM ^
They also insist that Warde and Harbaugh should have acted faster in the Mazi case.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:47 PM ^
Tucker is a rich coach. Mazi is a student. They need to own it and stop deflections. Geez.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:52 PM ^
Not saying I agree, just what I hear from fans in the lansing area.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:15 PM ^
September 10th, 2023 at 5:32 PM ^
It is callled "whataboutism" and Michigan lives rent free in Sparty's head.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:35 PM ^
Alan Haller will do the right thing.
True story: Alan was at a Quality Dairy in Lansing during high school and his car broke down. He was going to be late for football practice and Magic Johnson pulled up in his brand new Benz (Magic owned the store.) When Magic found out what was going on he threw Alan the keys to his Mercedes and said "Never be late for practice. Just bring the car back when you're done." Alan did just that.
September 10th, 2023 at 8:14 PM ^
You'd expect him to steal Magic Johnson's car???
September 10th, 2023 at 6:18 PM ^
I am sure he was aware, but not fully aware.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:16 PM ^
Yes its true that the hearing isn't until October 5th and nothing in their investigation changed since the investigation concluded three months ago, other than media stories breaking. But let's not kid ourselves; the media stories only broke because State has been struggling against very bad teams and is on track to lose eight (8) games, including their first next weekend. So State leaked the story.
Per ESPN, the universities interim president refused ESPN's FOIA request on this matter on July 30, 2023. The talking heads saying "well the university president/AD didn't know until now" should check their FOIA response letters.
Edit: My initial response may be a tad unfair. From a litigation standpoint, MSU's position that they are terminating his contract for essentially conduct that looks bad, is significantly weakened if they fire him after next Saturday, assuming MSU gets blown out, and continues to lose games at least every other week, for the remainder of the season. That would give Tucker a much better argument to claim all the facts had been long known to leadership including his "admissions" and that the only thing that changed is his on-field performance- covered elsewhere in his contract.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:30 PM ^
Why not place him on administrative leave until the investigation is complete? That would have been the correct thing to do. They had to have known this was going to become public no matter the effort to preserve confidentiality.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:55 PM ^
MSU administration is not known for doing the "correct" thing
September 10th, 2023 at 11:50 PM ^
Yes, assuming there’s some Machiavellian level of gamesmanship going on omits the fact that this is MS motherfucking U. They’re just lurching between appalling crises.
September 10th, 2023 at 6:16 PM ^
No matter how it plays out, in the end I believe it will be the most expensive whack off in history.
September 10th, 2023 at 9:51 PM ^
One dollar per sperm ejected, approximately.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:00 PM ^
I said this on one of the other Tucker threads, but this is a completely unacceptable delay right?
Is MSU going to be forced to get rid of a lot more people? Because this time frame feels like it lives in an uncomfortable territory between "investigation" and "cover up."
September 10th, 2023 at 4:03 PM ^
Your optimistic take is that the Title IX office was keeping it quiet like they're supposed to and letting Tracy go public if she wanted before the actual hearing next month.
I don't think that take is accurate, but you could choose to believe that.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:31 PM ^
This is the “benefit of the doubt” scenario.
The Title IX division handles the investigation and the adjudication. The AD is not involved and, at most, is informed that there is a title IX investigation without details to protect the integrity of the process both for the benefit of the victim (so AD can’t put pressure on people to get a desired outcome, something they have to be extra rigorous about in this hypothetical because the AD has a history of misbehavior) and the accused (to keep him from being unfairly disciplined before he has a chance to receive due process).
If the news story had not broken the department would only have heard the final results upon the hearing, at which point he would have been fired or retained based upon its outcome.
Thats the optimistic/benefit of the doubt case. I’m not saying it’s likely, but it is plausible. And, honestly, the biggest evidence in favor of such a kind interpretation of events is that so many are making jokes about this finally being MSU’s excuse to get out of the contract and it seems like that might have actually been true before this, too.
I’ll be interested to hear what they say at the presser. This would obviously be a situation where they want to defend their prior inaction.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:36 PM ^
It's plausible the school couldn't move to fire the coach until the October hearing. It's implausible to think the AD's office was unaware. That it's now suspending him hours after press reports suggests the school could have (and probably should have) suspended him pending them outcome of the hearing. The only thing that's changed between yesterday and today is that the media published a story.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:14 PM ^
Nope. They knew. They’re just really bad at this.
Not sure why I can’t get oembed to pull the tweet. Maybe it’s Twitter (or whatever he wants to call it now), wouldn’t be the first time.
Anyway the tweet is a quote from Haller saying he was aware of the report in December.
Tucker has been suspended because the news went public. They have done all but say that explicitly.
September 10th, 2023 at 10:33 PM ^
This is where I scratch my head and ask, what was MSU's game plan?
So, MSU is informed in December 2022 and finishes their independent investigation on July 25, 2023. The hearing is October 5, 2023. Just for a moment assume that the story stayed quiet, what exactly was MSU going to do after the October hearing? Just fire Tucker out of the blue then? If MSU thinks the conduct is so egregious now that they have to suspend him with pay, what did they think was going to happen in October when he is fired and then the story all comes out? Well, we needed a coach for the first 5 games of the season.
I mean it almost seems like MSU was hoping that Tucker and then the university could work out a settlement with the accuser and then slap a whole bunch of NDA's into the mix and never let this see the light of day.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:06 PM ^
MSU is either looking at a lawsuit from Tuck due to a lack of due process…or a lawsuit from the victim due to a lack of due process.
Or both. Could be both.
I honestly hope that it includes the former. A lawsuit from Mel Tucker would really drive home the reality that MSU just CANNOT be trusted to protect ANYONE or *treat* anyone, whether accuser or accused, fairly.
[Because, as shitty as Tucker looks in all this, HE deserved due process too]
September 10th, 2023 at 4:14 PM ^
Absolutely, this is Sparty insanity, and to be honest it looks racist. The man doesn't get a chance to defend himself.
Sure, it was stupid on his part, but he deserves the right to defend himself.
They literally can't be trusted with any decision. MSU is a publicly funded liability at this point.
****Correction - Looks like he was suspended and wasn't fired. And that basically changes the narrative of the following thread. The racism claim I fired off was for skipping due process amid the report he was fired.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:16 PM ^
Not dumb enough to every say or believe that racism is no longer a thing, but I don't think it played a role in this drama. This was just sheer stoopidity on both sides...
September 10th, 2023 at 4:17 PM ^
He admitted to pursuing a sexual relationship with a contractor. That's not criminal, but it's enough to breach his contract and get him fired for cause.
Not to mention his story doesn't make any damn sense and he's been caught in lies while telling it.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:32 PM ^
Wait, he admitted to jerking off on the phone with someone they hired to speak to the team about sexual assault and you think his firing is racist? He had his due process. He admitted to the best case scenario for him and it's still a fireable offense. We shit on state all the time, you would have been ok with him still being in charge of the program after what he acknowledged?
September 10th, 2023 at 4:40 PM ^
Paid leave till they figure it out.
He said they were in a consentual relationship and she deleted all of her texts with him. It isn't an open and shut case.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:52 PM ^
It is. He's either guilty of terrible judgment in having a consensual relationship with a person hired to speak to the team about sexual assault (while married) or he's guilty of sexual assault. What isn't clear?
September 10th, 2023 at 5:25 PM ^
There wasn’t an assault. He was on the phone with the victim when the incident occurred. It’s a sexual harassment case, not a sexual assault case.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:48 PM ^
And what Izzo did (protecting rapists) is arguably worse, but Tom wasn’t fired. I’m not saying it’s because of racism. It could be because one wins games and the other wins half his games.
Dantonio, who won games and also enabled a culture of violence and criminality, is on his way back to rescue the program.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:38 PM ^
Um, he did have a chance to defend himself. His testimony was duly recorded (and debunked). I'm usually among the first to call out institutional racism, which absolutely exists at MSU, but he was given due process here -- and still gets to defend himself at the hearing.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:51 PM ^
How does this look racist? The same thing happened to Fitz at Northwestern. When public pressure gets to a breaking point, this is what can happen.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:29 PM ^
Yeah, Petrino was canned for a consensual but inappropriate relationship because (as I remember) the young woman was a grad student working for the program. What Tucker admitted to is arguably worse. If it was non-consensual it was definitely worse.
September 10th, 2023 at 6:37 PM ^
It was because he hired his mistress into the program without having an open job search for an opening at a public university.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:31 PM ^
Disagree. They should in fact keep it entirely quiet until the investigation concludes. that's what fair due process is.
September 10th, 2023 at 6:22 PM ^
Agreed, I believe this is correct. There's no way they could have put MeLLLLLLL on suspension or leave without an explanation in July. The reason would have leaked eventually and due process goes out the window.
September 10th, 2023 at 10:40 PM ^
The investigation was completed in late July. MSU could have very easily suspended Tucker with pay and given a brief statement saying that an investigation was undertaken regarding a sexual harassment complaint. There will be a hearing on such and such a date and that is all of the information we can give at this time.
Now that would probably hurt recruiting as well as the program for this year, but that would have been the correct way to handle this bad situation. Suspending Tucker now only reinforces that MSU made the wrong decision.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:48 PM ^
Their response to this was to bring in Mark Dantonio, who has a strong reputatition when sex assault allegations are made for decisively… oh, wait…
September 10th, 2023 at 3:56 PM ^
Moms, can we keep THIS thread, delete the other one, and perma-ban the dude who thinks he’s some kind of Qanon poster??
September 10th, 2023 at 4:04 PM ^
Please post a link to his post or provide a name (preferably in the Mod Sticky thread).
September 10th, 2023 at 4:07 PM ^
He’s referring to GhostofJermaineGonzales
September 10th, 2023 at 4:08 PM ^
I don’t understand why people get so bothered by him.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:16 PM ^
Me too. Yea, his style takes some getting used to, but it’s not bad. Apparently, he has been banned from this site now.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:51 PM ^
Exactly to the level of banning someone. He didn't insult anyone. If you don't like his initials approach, just leave the thread.
September 10th, 2023 at 6:01 PM ^
Isn't there a parallel with the Tucker situation? Why some many phone calls over how long? Why did she not just hang up? Something doesn't square. I am not suggesting she was going to boil the family rabbit, but something does not smell right. Was it a race thing? Who were the players that raped her? Is this some kind of payback? Who knows, we don't.
The question is whether anything is provable, one way or the other.
But still, Tucker should not have been pursuing a vendor.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:09 PM ^
Someone already nuked his thread. I don’t know whether anything he does explicitly breaks the Board rules, but jfc it’s a tiresome Q-alike troll job
September 10th, 2023 at 4:18 PM ^
I’m not a fan of people getting nuked for just being annoying. I don’t care how annoying they are.
He has a schtick, people are free to criticize it. But there’s an unfortunate trend on here to be far too aggressive with calls for bans because we don’t like reading someone. Using initials may be annoying but it’s not hurting anyone.
Gojg has been around for a while and has basically been like this dating back to at least 2014 when he identified that Wilton Speight was showing promise behind the scenes. He got flamed for dropping one of his posts unprompted into another thread, so he made a new thread as requested, and got banned for it.
If there needs to be a “no attempts at providing inside information without first validating with Mgoblog staff” rule to weed out people tossing rumors out there, fine. But define the rule.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:29 PM ^
There's a big difference between being annoying (which people can be, including myself I'm sure) and just clogging up the board with gibberish and incomplete info.
I get it when someone is trying to be an "insider" and need to be intentionally vague, but for something that's about to be all over the news, I'd rather keep the forum space for people who are going to post complete thoughts with attributations and links to the articles/source.
September 10th, 2023 at 4:47 PM ^
just clogging up the board with gibberish and incomplete info.
This arguably could describe most of what I post here, albeit there is some difference in levels of conciseness. This is one of those areas where I get uncomfortable with nebulous rules.
It’s interesting to me that the two posters who have been most associated with providing inside info on this board have become lightning rods for anger and controversy. umbig11 got run off and it’s unclear if he still had any access into the Harbaugh regime (he was certainly free with his anger toward them in a way that bordered on uncomfortable later on) but he called the Speight/O’Korn outcome in 2016 definitely enough that Seth did due diligence to confirm his authenticity.
GOJG has largely been similar, but has not gotten combative the way umbig11 did once people tired of him.
The net effect is that apparent inside info winds up being discouraged. Which may be fine! It can be exhausting to try to confirm rumors, and the proprietors are well within their rights to set a guideline limiting claims of insider info that are potentially inflammatory and are difficult to verify. And the consequences of allowing posts asserting such rumors can be an issue (remember how much work Seth had to go to to confirm DB’s famous email to WD?). It’s hard work moderating amy kind of discussion board, and Rob and LSA have lives to live without doing all this. And GOJG certainly tosses out a lot of stuff, including a pretty punchy screenshot within the thread he posted.
We might lose something if they do this, but perhaps it’s more appropriate for a board like this. Recent years in particular inside info has not been a significant content driver on the blog, and it seems to suit what it has become under Brian and Seth.
But I would prefer the rules to be defined.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:02 PM ^
Ever been a mod before? I have (obviously not at MGoBlog…)
People ask for user bans and thread nukes and takedowns kinda all the time, and your default response is “no”. Only the egregious cases get more than 10 seconds of thought. Even borderline cases usually get left up, unless the comments start getting toxic.
By the time robf responded to me, the thread I mentioned had already been taken down. And apparently the user banned. This makes me happy, but it means that GoJG stepped over the line in a very explicit way.
I love a delusion of grandeur as much as the next guy, but I don’t think my opinion means much to the Moms. If it does, someone let me know; I’ve got some CHANGES I’d make ‘round these parts… ;-)
September 10th, 2023 at 9:17 PM ^
I have not modded, because I know it’s a brutal and thankless job. I have turned down opportunities to do so. Rob and LSA both work hard and while I don’t always agree with the choices they make, I generally like them and try not to be too critical (Rob’s a great guy, came by to introduce himself to me and my kids a few years ago when Michigan was playing at Minnesota). I am not above the occasional comment on modding policy, and their reasonable response to some pushback here honestly reminds me how much pressure can be on their choices. I try not to gripe about every old thing.
It’s a tough job and it can be hard to know where to draw the line. I appreciate the not-easy-to-do choice to not just dig in but to reconsider the initial choice, and to respond fairly to questions.