Florida State Football: 5 best coaching candidates to replace Jimbo Fisher

1. Willie Taggart, Oregon

Willie Taggart would be a great pick up for the FSU Seminoles as their head football coach. Coach Taggart is a Florida native coming from the Bradenton area out near Tampa Bay. He played and coached under Jack Harbaugh at Western Kentucky, before heading with Jim to Stanford, and then took over the Western Kentucky program.

After improving an abysmal WKU program to consecutive 7-5 records he was given the task of rebuilding the USF Bulls. The Bulls had fallen on hard times and Taggart rebuilt them in his mold and got quarterback Quinton Flowers Heisman attention.

Taggart parlayed a 10-2 record at USF into the Oregon Ducks coaching job for 2017. Taggart took the Ducks from 4-8 to 7-5 in year one. The Ducks did much better with star quarterback Justin Herbert than without. Once Herbert went down the Ducks lost two games they otherwise would’ve won and Taggart would’ve taken Oregon from four wins to nine wins in year one.

Oregon is a great job, and I’ve been to Autzen and seen how amazing it is in Eugene. However, it’s not Florida State and it’s not home for Willie Taggart. He would instantly make FSU competitive again and save FSU’s recruiting class which has bottomed out. Taggart has the Ducks recruiting class up to fifth in the nation in only a year and that same recruiting prowess in Tallahassee would be lethal.

Next: Projecting the Final CFB Playoff Rankings

Willie Taggart is the right man for the job, the question is will he leave Oregon after only a season? I can see him coming home to Florida, but we’ll know one way or another soon enough.