BROWNS
Ex-OSU assistant fits in well with NFL
Friday, August 04, 2006
James Walker
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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BEREA, Ohio — The most vocal and energetic coach in the Browns’ training camp so far has not been Romeo Crennel.
That honor goes to second-year defensive backs coach Mel Tucker.
The Cleveland native and former Ohio State assistant seems to work tirelessly, perhaps part of what drove him to become, at 34, one of the best young assistants in the league. He offers one-on-one tutelage — a demonstration here, a pat on the butt there — as part of a philosophy he has learned in nine years of coaching.
"When I come out here, my focus is on getting better and improving my communication with my players and improving my ability to develop guys in the classroom and on the field," Tucker said. "If I can get better, I feel like my players can get better."
It has been a year since Tucker made the decision to leave Ohio State. It’s a place where he still has close friends, players he helped recruit, and memories such as winning a national championship.
Last year, Tucker said that if he could coach in Columbus on Saturdays and drive up to Cleveland to work with the Browns on Sundays he would, because the players and his former co-workers mean that much to him.
But when the NFL called, Tucker said he had to answer.
"I feel good about the decision that I made," he said. "Obviously, I’ll always have a lot of good friends in Columbus — coaches, players, people in the academic community and alumni. Those people always have a special place in my heart, and I’ve gotten a lot of support from those people as well, as far as wishing me well and pulling for me to do well here in Cleveland.
"So I feel good about that and I’m just focused on improving every day as a coach and helping this football team as much as I can."
Last season, Cleveland had the NFL’s fourth-best pass defense, even while Tucker adjusted to the pros. The coaching principles learned in three years at Ohio State needed tweaking to fit Crennel’s 3-4 scheme.
Players are treated differently at the pro level, so it was important for Tucker to learn his unit’s personalities. For instance, starting cornerback Gary Baxter is very outgoing, teammate Leigh Bodden is more low key, and veteran Daylon McCutcheon is somewhere in between.
Tucker faced his biggest challenge last year when Baxter, who was expected to be the team’s top corner, went down with a season-ending pectoral injury after five games. The job was Bodden’s for the rest of the season.
The defensive backfield didn’t miss a step. Bodden developed under Tucker’s guidance, and the Browns gave Bodden a four-year, $10 million contract extension in December.
"I think (Tucker) deserves a lot of credit," Baxter said. "He took a guy that nobody really gave a chance to go in and replace me. Every day, all he did was tell Leigh Bodden to be yourself and go out there and play. … Leigh Bodden has turned out to be a pretty good player."
Bodden said, "Mel is a downto-earth guy. He kind of lets me play my game. He fine-tunes it here and there, but I like coaches that let me go out and play my game."
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