Colorado coach Mel Tucker and Michigan State have agreed in principle to make him the new head football coach at MSU, people with knowledge of the matter told The Athletic on Tuesday night. After the 48-year-old Cleveland native turned down initial interest late last week, MSU power brokers came back repeatedly to Tucker’s reps with an offer that was impossible to ignore.



People with knowledge of Tucker’s deal with the Spartans said it doubles his Colorado coaching salary pool (which was $3.15 million in 2019), includes a substantial increase to the Michigan State strength and conditioning staff budget and program resources and will more than double Tucker’s Colorado salary, which is around $2.7 million.



On Feb. 7, while Tucker was on a Colorado donor tour, his name surfaced in a Detroit Free Press report that the Spartans planned to interview him for the Michigan State vacancy. Tucker discussed the initial MSU conversations with...