Mel Tucker should not be forgotten 

Especially during times like now when Alabama is once again playing for the national championship on Monday, I keep coming back to the fact that the Browns of the early 1990s had what is now the best head coach in the NFL in Bill Belichick and what is arguably the best head coach in the college ranks in Nick Saban, or at least one of the best if you count a guy named Urban Meyer, and we certainly do in these parts.

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It’s just unbelievable. Was that real?

There was also a guy on that staff named Kirk Ferentz, who is the longest-tenured head coach in college, and whose Iowa team cost Ohio State a spot in the playoffs this season.

In addition, Ozzie Newsome, arguably the best general manger in the NFL, was a pro personnel assistant for Belichick’s Browns.

Thinking about all that can help get Browns fans through these dreary periods now.

Here’s something else that’s kinda cool about the Browns and Monday’s title game. It is that Georgia’s defensive coordinator is Mel Tucker, a Cleveland Heights native who grew up as a huge Browns fan and got to be an assistant with his hometown team on Romeo Crennel’s staff from 2005-08, serving the first three seasons as defensive backs coach and the last year as defensive coordinator.

Tucker, who was also an assistant at Ohio State during Jim Tressel’s first four seasons from 2001-04, including on the 2002 national championship team, made some great adjustments in the second half to slow down Baker Mayfield and Oklahoma in the Bulldogs’ comeback 54-48 double-overtime victory in the semifinals on Jan. 1. Tucker’s guys have their work cut out for them once more against Alabama as he tries to be part of a national champion for the first time in 15 years.

Now, doesn’t that make you feel even better still?

Don’t forget about Mel Tucker

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