Even with a mask covering half his face, the disappointment was clear on Mel Tucker’s face.
Michigan State had just lost Tucker’s first game as the Spartans’ head coach, turning the ball over seven times on the way to losing to a Rutgers team that entered the game on a 21-game Big Ten skid.
But even as the coach lamented the turnovers and talked about his team playing to a higher standard, what’s next for the Spartans became quite clear.
“We've got a big game; we've got Michigan next week,” Tucker said. “We've got to focus on controlling what we can control.