Michigan State football: Mel Tucker loses chief of staff after Geoff Martzen resigns
Michigan State football head coach Mel Tucker lost his chief of staff.
Geoff Martzen announced via Twitter on Tuesday he recently resigned his position with the football program. The school confirmed his last day was Friday.
Martzen, 32, followed Tucker from Colorado in February 2020. He spent one season with the Buffaloes in 2019 after one season as Chip Kelly’s director of player personnel at UCLA in 2018. Martzen also served as Colorado State’s director of player personnel from 2015-17.
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“Geoff is an outstanding evaluator of talent and players,” Tucker said in Martzen’s bio. “He's a tireless worker and a competitor. He really understands the importance of recruiting and how it's the lifeblood of the program.”
It's the second significant loss to Tucker's support staff this offseason. He hired Saeed Khalif away from Wisconsin as MSU’s new director of player personnel in June to replace Scott Aligo. Tucker also promoted Travares Tillman in January to coach cornerbacks, filling the vacancy created when Mike Tressel left to become Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator.
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Also late last month, Tucker hired Thomas Wilcher to a yet-to-be-announced role. The former Detroit Cass Tech coach initially was expected to be an analyst. MSU, which has not officially confirmed Wilcher's hiring, could absorb the chief of staff position and reassign duties between Khalif and director of player personnel Cody Cox to create a different position to fit Wilcher's skills coming from the high school ranks.
Martzen, in his tweet, said he also recently got married and is "ecstatic to turn my focus to being a husband, better dad, and a bad amateur sports better (sic)."
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football: Geoff Martzen resigns as chief of staff
