Kiszla: All Mel Tucker does is win, win, win. And it makes the CU Buffs sick, sick, sick. – The Denver Post

Every victory by Mel Tucker is a punch in the gut to the Colorado Buffaloes.

On Saturday afternoon, I turned on the television in search of Colorado’s game at Oregon, only to find Midnight Mel wearing the satisfied smile of an undefeated coach chasing a national championship dream.

Tucker stood in a rain-soaked stadium filled to the brim with football passion, after his Michigan State squad rallied from 16 points down in the second half to beat archrival Michigan 37-33 and thrust the Spartans firmly into the debate about the most-worthy participants in the College Football Playoff.

“It isn’t about me,” Tucker bellowed to the national audience watching on Fox. “It’s about the Spartans. It’s about Spartan Nation.”

Remember when Midnight Mel used to swear he was all about the Buffs?

Ouch. (That’s my four-letter word of choice; CU die-hards might find something saltier more appropriate.)

The pride and joy in Tucker’s eyes have to be particularly annoying to the Buffs, forsaken by Tucker, who bolted Boulder in the middle of the night after a single season as CU’s coach.

While the Spartans are 8-0 and Tucker is all smiles, all CU coach Karl Dorrell can do is grit his teeth and bear the pain. Colorado was thumped 52-29 by the seventh-ranked Ducks, revealing the huge gap between the best team in the Pac-12 Conference and the wannabe Buffs, whose record slipped to 2-6.

It’s easy for the too few and stubbornly proud CU faithful to cry in their White Rascal ale and curse Midnight Mel. What’s far more difficult, if not impossible, is to build a top-25 program at a university ambivalent about football, at best.

When Tucker took the CU job in 2019, I asked him if three years would be sufficient to build the program into a conference champion. He laughed at the suggestion, because Tucker had absolutely no intention of waiting patiently for more than two years to be on equal footing with Oregon.

“That’s a long time in my business. Three years? That’s a long time,” he told me before leading the Buffs onto Folsom Field for the first time.

After a 3-1 start, Tucker suffered through five consecutive conference losses. When his Buffs were routed by the Ducks and lost a heart-breaker to Southern Cal, Tucker began quietly dropping hints to me that CU’s commitment to winning fell far short of what he had hoped.

In February 2020, when he took the money and ran to Michigan State, which nearly doubled his salary and committed to funding his staff at a level far above CU’s investment in quality assistant coaches, it was almost quaint that the Buffs felt stabbed in the back. How could anyone really be angered by Tucker pursuing a far better and more lucrative opportunity? Isn’t that the definition of the American dream?

Tucker is a rock star on the rise, an overnight sensation at age 49, after putting in decades of work at his craft before being given the chance to run his own program. He has no time for dilly-dallying.

Here’s how Midnight Mel works: The Spartans’ success has been driven by breakout Heisman candidate Kenneth Walker III, who ran for 197 yards and scored five touchdowns against Michigan. Walker joined the Spartans in January, only 24 hours after he entered the transfer portal from Wake Forest.

Dorrell is an admired teacher and fine man. But he’s a plugger. The Buffs figure to be at least a touchdown underdog in every game left on their schedule. With a 3-9 record likely the best CU can do, Dorrell will be on the hot seat after only his second season on the job.

But perhaps Dorrell’s toughest challenge will be to keep recruiting vultures away from young receiver Brenden Rice, whose five catches for 102 yards against Oregon offered a glimmer of hope that this young CU offense might be ready for more than baby steps.

In the dog-eat-dog world of college football, where players can cash in on name, image and likeness, as well as easily transfer to a school that gives them a better opportunity to win and earn money, CU is naively trying to sell solid academics and fresh mountain air.

Well, bless their little hearts.

In a sport that’s now all about the Benjamins for star players and powerful coaches alike, Tucker was ahead of the curve when he bolted Boulder. And would it surprise anyone if he cashed in on his success at Michigan State by interviewing with LSU or USC?

Tucker was exactly the coach the Colorado football program needed. But Colorado is the wrong job for any football coach who dreams big.

As galling as it must be to admit for CU die-hards, Midnight Mel was correct.

To pursue a national championship with conviction, Tucker had little choice but to leave the Buffs, because there simply isn’t enough love for CU football to do more than pine for long-lost glory days.

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