EAST LANSING — It didn’t feel like spring, and it certainly wasn’t a game. But what transpired Saturday inside Spartan Stadium captured the essence of Mel Tucker’s Michigan State football program as it dives headfirst into the third year of his regime.
There was the relentless pace Tucker covets during the 90-minute practice, where players cycled from individual periods to team drills with few breaks in between. There was the fan support Tucker has yearned to build, with spectators filing through the gates and filling out the bottom section of the lower bowl. There was an intense focus on recruiting, as multiple five-star prospects absorbed the scene from the sidelines during a weekend when some of the best high school talent in the nation traveled to Ingham County.