Toledo Quarterback: Driven by Family and Football

Toledo Quarterback: Driven by Family and Football

In a Rise: Beyond the Jersey student-athlete profile for Athletics, Toledo quarterback Tucker Gleason talks about his family, his choice of undergraduate degrees and being newly married.

I was very blessed to grow up with both parents in the household. They love and support me in everything that I do and everything that they can do to support me, they will. I was the youngest of four kids. I've got two older brothers, Jared and Thad, and an older sister, Allie May. I grew up watching them play football. They're the reason I played football to begin with, because I saw my brothers playing football when I was two or three years old, and I wanted to be just like them. My sister actually played a couple of years of tackle youth football too. So I started playing football when I was young, probably about five. My brothers would have been 11 and 10 then, so I never played with them, but I grew up watching them. I was in middle school when my brothers were juniors and seniors in high school. I was actually the water boy for the team for a couple of years.

Growing up, we had a game called Traps that we played in our playroom. One person was "it" and they closed the door and everybody else would set up traps. Then you would shut the lights off and then the person that was it would have to walk through the playroom and tag somebody. I wasn't a huge fan of that one because I was the youngest, so they'd always pick on me. The one I remember the most, my brother put a blanket on the ground, and as soon as I stepped on the blanket, he pulled the blanket out from under me. I went feet up in the air and landed straight on my back. That one hurt. But it was fun. All three of them have just been great to grow up with and they truly are some of my best friends.

Reuniting with Coach Rob Weiner
I transferred to Plant (High School) the second semester of my sophomore year. That's when I met Coach Weiner. He was one of the biggest names in Tampa High School football back then. I went to Plant because I wanted to be a college quarterback and I knew that he could help get me there. Ever since day one, we have had a great relationship. He's a big part of the reason I came to Toledo. When I entered the portal from Georgia Tech, he hit me up and was like, "Hey, we've got spot here for you." And I was like, sure I'd love to come play with you again.

We're very close. It's funny because sometimes we will sit down to talk about something football related and we'll get on the topic of something else and that will take up our whole time. And we won't even get to whatever we wanted to talk about in the first place. I think that's good. We could be in a room together for three hours and we could talk about anything. He was the officiant at my wedding.

A question of (two) degrees
The two things that I always wanted to be growing up was either something in the medical field or in the programming world. So, when I was at Georgia Tech, I was a computer science major. Then I came here, I saw that they offered the exercise science major. So I figured, I'll do exercise science, and after my days are done, I'll be a strength coach or maybe I'll go to physical therapy school and become a physical therapist. I just guess I kind of had a change of heart. I didn't really want to go down that path. I decided I wanted to go back and kind of finish what I started at Georgia Tech with a degree in computer science. So that's what I'm working on now, a degree in computer science and engineering technology. After my playing days are done, I think that's the route I want to go, into the programming world.

Married life and how I met my wife
In eighth grade I started training with this guy in Tampa, Matt Starks. I trained with him from eighth grade until about my sophomore year of high school. He's from Paducah, Kentucky. He eventually decided he wanted to move back home to Paducah because he wanted to start his family. They have a little boy, six years old now. His name is Tucker. Yeah, they named him after me.

My wife, Emma, played softball at Southern Illinois, which is close to Paducah. I would go up there and see [Matt] when we'd have breaks in our schedule. One summer, he said, I've got this girl athlete I'm working with. She's a softball player, super fast. He was kind of talking her up a little bit. So, I went there, it was July of 2022, and spent three or four days with him, and she was there working out every single day. It's funny because I think we were both scared to talk to each other. We kind of knew that we were being set up. I would say I was probably a little more nervous to talk to her than she was to me. Later she messaged me and we got to talking. We started dating shortly after that, and the rest is history.

We both knew that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with each other, so why not get married? Yeah, I'm still in college, but she's not. So it's just the right timing for all of it. Married life has been awesome. I'm really excited just for her to be up here this season. She's now my biggest supporter.

We got married in Marion, Illinois, Emma's hometown. All of my groomsmen, besides my two brothers, Jared and Thad, were people that I had met up here at Toledo. My best man was Judge Culpepper. And then we had John Allen Richter, A.J. Gucciardo, Matt Bailey, Mike Denning, and Luke Pawlak. And then her brother, Brady Austin.

Reflections on five seasons as a Rocket
I never thought that I'd end up at Toledo but I'm so glad that I did. I've met so many great people and so many friends that I'll have for a lifetime here. It's been awesome. Going into my last season, I'm just trying to really make the most of it, you know, just really take it all in. I'm just trying to make the most of every moment and make memories and just have fun and go win a MAC Championship. I don't know what'll happen in January when I'm done here. I don't know if I'll be playing football, or if I'll have to go get a job, or if I'll have to go back to school. So I'm just trying to focus on the next four months here and really make the most of that.