Michigan State football coach search: 9 candidates to replace Mel Tucker

Michigan State football will soon begin its search for a new head coach after formally firing Mel Tucker on Wednesday.

The Spartans will continue the 2023 season with Harlon Barnett as acting head coach. In the meantime, athletic director Alan Haller will begin the search for a permanent replacement.

Michigan State enters the head coaching search just two years after thinking the football program was set for the future with Tucker. The coach received a 10-year, $95 million extension in 2021 to keep him in East Lansing while he led the Spartans to a 11-2 season. Tucker will likely lose out on nearly $80 million because he was fired for cause due to an investigation into sexual harassment allegations made against him.

A look at nine possible candidates (in alphabetical order) MSU could target to become its next head football coach:

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Harlon Barnett

If Michigan State decides to hire a candidate from the current coaching staff, the active head coach would be atop the list. Barnett, 56, stepped up to take over interim head coach after Tucker’s suspension and is the most senior member of the staff.

Barnett, the defensive coordinator at Florida State in 2018-19, rejoined MSU on Tucker’s staff as the secondary coach in 2020. Barnett originally held the position under Dantonio from 2007-14 before becoming the co-defensive coordinator with Tressel until 2017. Barnett was an All-American defensive back for MSU in the 1980s for George Perles’ Rose Bowl-winning team.

Matt Campbell

Campbell, 43, is the head coach of Iowa State. Campbell is a frequent member of coaching rumor mills when jobs open because he has won Big 12 coach of the year three times since taking over Iowa State in 2016. Campbell has turned down other interests in the past to stay at Iowa State.

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Chris Creighton

One of the bigger swings MSU could take would be on this in-state candidate who coaches Eastern Michigan.

Creighton, 54, is responsible for turning around the football program at EMU in the past decade, and has reached a bowl game in five of the past seven years. Creighton has a 48-63 record since taking over in 2013, and led the Eagles to a share of the MAC West division title for the first time in 2022.

Pat Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald was the last Big Ten coach fired before Tucker’s exit. Northwestern fired Fitzgerald, 48, amid hazing and harassment allegations from former players that became public this past summer.

The scandal tarnished Fitzgerald’s legacy at the school as the winningest head coach and two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year as a player. In 17 years, Fitzgerald amassed a 110-101 record and took Northwestern to the Big Ten championship game twice. He currently assists his sons’ high school football team in Chicago.

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Courtney Hawkins

Hawkins is the wide receivers coach for Michigan State. He joined Tucker’s staff in 2020 after 14 years as the head coach of Flint Beecher. Hawkins’ job at MSU was his first as a college coach.

Hawkins, 53, is a locker room favorite and helped in the development of two current and one future NFL wide receiver for MSU (Jayden Reed, Jalen Nailor, Keon Coleman). Hawkins played receiver at Michigan State from 1988-91 and had a nine-year NFL career.

Lance Leipold

Leipold is a hot name in college coaching circles because of the quick turnaround he has manufactured at Kansas. He has led the Jayhawks to a 4-0 record so far in 2023 just years after Kansas was by far the worst Power Five team in the country.

Leipold, 59, got his start at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater and won six national championships from 2007-14. He made the jump to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2015 when he took over Buffalo and won two MAC Coach of the Year awards in six seasons.

Jim Leonhard

Leonhard is currently a senior football analyst for Illinois. Leonhard is most known for his time as the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin from 2017-22. Leonhard filled in as the interim coach in 2022 after Wisconsin fired Paul Chryst and guided the Badgers to a 5-3 record.

Leonhard, 40, was a three-time All-American safety at Wisconsin (2002-04) and played 10 years in the NFL. He previously turned down opportunities to work in the NFL to stay in college.

Pat Narduzzi

Narduzzi, 57, is another familiar name for MSU fans who could be in the running. Narduzzi has been the head coach of Pittsburgh since he left his position as Michigan State’s defensive coordinator in 2015. He has a 63-44 record as head coach and led Pitt to the ACC title in 2021, when his team lost to MSU in the Peach Bowl.

Mike Tressel

Tressel, who previously worked at MSU as a defensive coach for 14 seasons, is the defensive coordinator for Wisconsin. Tressel, who turns 50 on Thursday, came to MSU on Mark Dantonio’s staff as a linebackers coach, before becoming co-defensive coordinator in 2015.

Tressel was named acting head coach after Dantonio’s retirement and stayed on Tucker’s staff as the safeties coach in 2020. He eventually moved on to Cincinnati in 2021 to join Luke Fickell’s staff as the defensive coordinator and followed him to Wisconsin.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State coaching candidates: 9 options after Mel Tucker fired