OT: FSU Hires Oregon HC Willie Taggart
http://www.espn.com/espn/now?nowId=1-21679467
Considered one of the best relatively young Offensive minds in football. This seems like a solid hire in a solid coaching search, especially compared to the tire fire that is the UT search.
Edit
8 years as Head Coach at 3 schools
47-50 overall
Each team got better each year under him
Derwin James just announced he isn't playing in their bowl game either, as he is skipping it to prep for the draft.
December 5th, 2017 at 4:25 PM ^
ITT: People who think "track record" means looking up a coach's record on Wikipedia call Willie Taggart, a guy who turned around two garbage programs, "meh".
December 5th, 2017 at 5:23 PM ^
To be fair, I used Wikipedia in defense of him.
December 5th, 2017 at 4:19 PM ^
Oregon's the other team I support in College Football. It's quite sad for us.
That'll kill the momentum of the great class he managed to get for next year & I don't think we can find a better coach
December 6th, 2017 at 8:48 AM ^
I always thought of Oregon as a Destination job because of all the $$$ and hype and innovation.
But I guess not.
They can't manage to keep a winning coach there.
The peak Oregon years are going to make a great 30 for 30 some day.
We, um, did our part:
December 5th, 2017 at 4:22 PM ^
Both Oregon and FSU have cantankerous fan bases, but Willie just downgraded IMO.
December 5th, 2017 at 4:29 PM ^
How in the world is FSU a downgrade from Oregon? Do you consider Michigan a downgrade from Oregon too?
December 5th, 2017 at 4:29 PM ^
FSU is a better job than Oregon several times over. Let's even throw out FSU's tradition of winning the last 40 years as opposed to Oregon's last 10 or so. Both schools have the same expectations, but FSU has the advantage of being within an hour or two driving distance of all the players they'll ever need to win a title. For Oregon, you've got to hop on a plane and fly to California, to Texas, and anywhere else you need to go to get those kinds of players. Oregon isn't known for producing a lot of blue-chip talent.
December 6th, 2017 at 8:56 AM ^
Also, Oregon's key recruiting advantages are being steadily usurped . . . everybody runs the spread now, everybody is upgrading to crazy facilities, everybody is wearing uniformz.
When Maryland is as known for crazy uniformz as Oregon, you've lost your identity.
Oregon is still interesting, but it is no longer unique.
If it does not soon come out with the Next Big Thing, it's going to go back to just being an ordinary middle-of-the-pack school in an isolated location.
December 5th, 2017 at 4:43 PM ^
FSU is two or three years removed from the most recent championship. And it wasn't too long ago that they had a run of 14 straight years of Top 5 finishes. Jesus, expectations....
December 5th, 2017 at 4:59 PM ^
FSU is at worst a top 5 job, more like top 3. Oregon is more like a top 20 job.
December 5th, 2017 at 9:36 PM ^
The only way FSU could possibly be considered a downgrade is with facilities. That is one of the reasons Fisher left. Apparently, FSU's facilities are trash and the AD is hedging on upgrades. Can't be competitive for titles if your facilities fall behind the norm...
December 6th, 2017 at 8:58 AM ^
Why in the world would FSU skimp on facilities?
Football defines that school.
They get the same money Clemson does, and we've seen what Clemson is doing.
Does not make any sense.
December 6th, 2017 at 4:50 PM ^
They're not on par with Alabama or Clemson, but they're by far the best in the state of Florida and at or exceed the level of most high-performing football schools.
December 5th, 2017 at 4:27 PM ^
We can go after Mario Cristobal their offensive line coach.
December 5th, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 7:27 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 9:37 PM ^
Mario was named interim HC...
December 5th, 2017 at 4:27 PM ^
People knockng the overall record are the same people who knock Harbaugh for being 29-21 at Stanford. Context mattters, Taggart has never not improved the teams he has coached. Unlike Brady Hoke, he worked as a coordinator, USF is a higher level than either ball state or san diego state and he already proven himself as an elite recruiter.
May not be a slam dunk but he has a good pedigree. Think this is a good hire for fsu. To be honest I was hoping he would stay at Oregon and would be around as a potential Harbaugh replacement whenever that day comes.
December 5th, 2017 at 4:54 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 5:04 PM ^
Its absurd that people look at overall record to make this judgement. Hoke and Harbaugh had similar records through 2 years at Michigan.
Hoke's resume wasn't terrible before coming to Michigan. If a coach is working their way up through bad situations chances are they have losses. Taggart won at USF which is a higher level than Hoke coached and he has proven himself to be an elite recruiter, specifically in Florida. I'm not sure why you think comparing Taggart to Hoke is such a bad thing, it wasn't a terrible hire at the time for Michigan and this is a good hire for FSU.
December 5th, 2017 at 7:31 PM ^
Some of the arguments here are just based on emotion and hindsight when it comes to Hoke and Harbaugh
Really does Taggart's history as an OC stregnthen his resume over Hoke? It was at a 1-AA school. He took a promotion to become a position coach at a Power 5 school, something Hoke did at a high level.
December 5th, 2017 at 4:28 PM ^
Could Knight buy out Chip from UCLA and bring him back?
December 5th, 2017 at 4:34 PM ^
Was just thinking this. Happens with position coaches where they leave after a month before the job even starts because of a better offer.
December 5th, 2017 at 8:41 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 11:47 PM ^
hiring coaches. In fact, they seem cheaper than most schools close to their level.
They tried to fix their horrible defense in 2016 by throwing big money at the top DC they could find, $600K a year for Hoke.
December 5th, 2017 at 4:31 PM ^
So what happens if UT can't land Tee Martin? Do they risk dipping down into the G5/FBS ranks, or try their luck in plucking an NFL coordinator?
Either way, they're still a shitshow.
December 6th, 2017 at 9:00 AM ^
And yet they still did not hire Herm Edwards.
December 5th, 2017 at 4:33 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 4:33 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 4:35 PM ^
Odds Oregon just promotes Jim Leavitt?
December 5th, 2017 at 4:43 PM ^
Very low.
December 5th, 2017 at 7:43 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 7:43 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 4:35 PM ^
Odds Oregon just promotes Jim Leavitt?
December 5th, 2017 at 4:46 PM ^
Oregon is a decent job. I don't think they will settle for Leavitt who has only been there one year and has some skeletons from his head coaching job at USF.
Guys like Kevin Sumlin, Jeff Brohm, and Mike Norvell could all be in play at Oregon. I think if they hired someone from their current staff it would more likely be Mario Cristobal.
December 5th, 2017 at 4:43 PM ^
Miles might be the best UT can do at this point.
December 5th, 2017 at 4:50 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 5:02 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 5:06 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 6:45 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 4:50 PM ^
Mark RIcht, hired 2 years ago at Miami, is now the LONGEST TENURED HEAD COACH amongst the 7 FBS team in the state in Florida.....
— Chris Landry (@LandryFootball) December 5, 2017
December 5th, 2017 at 4:52 PM ^
Oregon still probably needs a schematic/system guy at this stage. I'd say someone like Sumlin or dare I say........Lane Kiffin?
December 5th, 2017 at 6:22 PM ^
They should hire Rich Rod.
December 5th, 2017 at 10:13 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 5:14 PM ^
1) He's an amazing recruiter. The level of talent he got to come play at USF is stunning for a Group of 5 program. Yeah yeah yeah, they're in Tampa. But nobody else had ever brought that kind of talent there. He was recruiting at a level where they had the horses to be a mid range power five team.
2) USF got to see him have his growing pains, everyone else gets the Taggart who learned from his mistakes. When he was at Western Kentucky, he was fully Stanford offensively. It worked eventually and he was able to make them into a physical pounding running team. He tried to do that at USF because it worked at Stanford and WKU, and it was failing miserably. Why? Couldn't get the kind of midwestern linemen to make the offense work. So he changed it up, went with a spread system that used a lot of his power concepts and a running QB and all that Florida skill talent, and USF took off.
I think FSU just got a hell of a coach for this stage, since the big names were already off the board.
December 5th, 2017 at 6:05 PM ^
December 5th, 2017 at 6:24 PM ^
and get talent at FSU or Florida. Well, McElwain and Miami in between Richt and their early 2000s run have proved that false. Florida is so crowded with out of state programs trying to pick guys off, you're not just going to fold your arms and bring in top classes. There's also a huge gap between being 5-10 in recruiting and being 1 or 2. Florida State with a guy like Taggart who has so much energy and skill and ties to the state is going to really start giving Alabama and FSU a run for their money for that number 1 spot.
December 5th, 2017 at 9:03 PM ^
To many people here in Tallahassee it is also very meaningful that the school has hired a black coach.
December 5th, 2017 at 9:45 PM ^
It's sad that this is even a consideration. I just figured they targeted the best coach they thought they could get, and went out and got him. I think they did well...