Mel Tucker went into his Michigan State football debut imagining what it would feel like to run out of the Spartan Stadium tunnel for his first game as head coach.
He never envisioned walking back to the locker room defeated by Rutgers and dejected by a 38-27 loss.
One rule applied for his players, either way.
“If in fact you do lose a game, how do you handle a loss? What is your mental disposition coming off of a game like that?” Tucker said on a videoconference call Tuesday. “The process is, win or lose, it's a 24-hour rule and then it's time to move on to the next to the next game.