OT: FSU Hires Oregon HC Willie Taggart

Submitted by SolidSmeef on

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.

 

Jasper

December 5th, 2017 at 5:06 PM ^

Look what happened after he left:

2009: 2-10 (That season the Cardinals were led by another distinguished member of the Lloyd Carr coaching tree, Stan Parrish. Woo.)

2010: 4-8 (Parrish again. Some improvement. More Woo.)

I don't see sustained excellence there.

As someone else pointed out, you could reasonably look at his SDSU work and say that he took the program up another notch. His DC (Rocky Long) is still the head coach and they've had a good run.

BlueWon

December 5th, 2017 at 5:13 PM ^

at BSU when he was their OC -- gave UM fits in the  game they played. ''They played a lot of ZR and spead concepts. I was a little surprised when Hoke when all in on "manball" at UM.

TrueBlue2003

December 5th, 2017 at 5:36 PM ^

It also can't be overstated how dire the OL situation was for his 3rd and 4th years.  RichRod recruited one (one!!) OL in the 2010 class (Christian Pace) and just three in 2011. Four guys in two years for a position group that needs five on the field at a time! That's less than half of what you should be recruiting if you're allocating your 85 spots correctly. That's a recruiting fail of epic proportions.

If anyone thinks our OL situation was rough this year because of poor classes in 2014 and 2015, the situation was a lot worse in 2013 and 2014 because of the OL recruiting in 2010 and 2011.

jamesjosephharbaugh

December 5th, 2017 at 5:08 PM ^

but this is how it works.  successful coaches get bigger opportunities until they hit their ceiling.  only a few can be elite at the highest level, but schools are always hoping they hit the lottery with their next hire. Hoke was exposed by the task at UM.  Taggart may be exposed at FSU or he may rise to the occasion.  Harbaugh may eventually trounce UM and OSU regularly but jury's out.  A major hire is a gamble, you don't know if you'll hit the jackpot or walk away broke

Mpfnfu Ford

December 5th, 2017 at 6:30 PM ^

Western Kentucky/Ball State portions of their careers definitely you can make a case, but the Mountain West Brady Hoke was coaching SDSU in was nowhere near as competitive as the AAC. Also Hoke had Rocky Long as his DC, who ended up replacing him as HC and doing significantly better than Hoke was doing. There's no similar coordinator coat tail riding you can see from Taggart.

MGlobules

December 5th, 2017 at 6:06 PM ^

these days. If I could conceive of what might be done to rectify. . .

All I can really imagine is that Brian or somebody sits by for a week and dumps every post that contribution. Anything that begins "LOL bro. You should. . ." should receive a lifetime banhammer.  

TrueBlue2003

December 5th, 2017 at 5:47 PM ^

at WKU for two seasons way back in 2001-2002.  Never was a sole coordinator.  Jumped from Stanford RB coach (generally considered the least demanding position coach) to HC at WKU.

Mostly a position coach for some successful teams, jumped directly to HC and had some nice seasons as a HC with very similar results right down to the overall record (47-50).

Other than age, the comparisons of track record are pretty close.  I think Taggart is going to have more success mostly for his willingness/desire to run a more modern offense, but we'll see.

TrueBlue2003

December 5th, 2017 at 6:34 PM ^

and coached 5 years at USF.  While he may not have ties to FSU specifically, he's a Florida guy all the way which was certainly a big factor in FSU's interest (and his in them). FSU wouldn't have offered him if not for those regional ties.

As for Oregon, he didn't have ties there, but that's not a destination job like Michigan is.  So it's not apples to apples to compare his hire there to Hoke's at Michigan. Hoke was a pretty hot name at the time and could have gotten second tier jobs on par with Oregon without having ties there.

Engin77

December 5th, 2017 at 5:48 PM ^

You can call athletics at the University of Oregon many things, but "poor" is not one of them.  Not with Phil Knight in their house.

Oregon fans are not believing that Chip Kelly returned to coaching less than two weeks before the Ducks' Head Coach position opened up.  They're tearing out their hair (feathers?).

Kevin13

December 5th, 2017 at 4:08 PM ^

doesn't let weeds grow under his feet. Third team in three years. Not sure about all the hype with him just yet. He has a loosing record as a HC. I guess FSU is convinced though and that is all that matters.