Mel Tucker praise has Michigan State analyst bullish on Colorado transfer

The praise former Colorado football and current Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker gave to ex-Buffaloes defensive lineman Jalen Sami, who Tucker coached during his lone season in charge at CU, has Spartan Avenue’s Connor Muldowney high on the 2017 Boulder commit who transferred to MSU in February.

“Hearing Tucker speak so highly of his former player at Colorado makes me believe his role is going to be large this season,” Muldowney prefaced before saying, “Breakout year coming for Sami?” Tucker had said that some of his Spartans staffers were running down the hallway trying to lure Sami to East Lansing.

“He’s a good player,” Tucker told 247Sports’ Stephen Brooks. “He’s a big body. He’s athletic. He’s a great guy. When he hit the portal, I mean there was literally some running in the hallway. Guys were running trying to get it done.”

Former Colorado football DL Jalen Sami a ‘massive addition’ to Michigan State

Sami, who has been a steady force for Colorado football since 2019 and typically averaged multiple tackles a game and would be good for one sack/forced fumble a season, was seen as a “massive addition” from both a literal and figurative point of view for Michigan State by Spartan Nation’s Matthew Lounsberry.

“Standing 6-foot-6 and weighing in at 330 pounds, Sami is a massive addition (both figuratively and literally) for Michigan State’s front seven,” Lounsberry prefaced before saying, “This is a guy who will eat up blocks and help the Spartans improve a run defense that ranked 102nd in rush yards allowed per game (178.6) and was T-85th in yards allowed per carry (4.29) in 2022.”

While Deion Sanders has largely been lauded for his roster-building techniques by both his own coaching staff and his peers (for the next year at least) in the Pac-12, losing a player like Sami is one of the major negatives to his aggressive transfer portal posturing — regarding players he pulled from the portal and those who he pushed by force.