Florida State football made a home run hire with Willie Taggart and the Seminoles will be title contenders in year one, and here’s why.
Traveling back home, and across the country, Willie Taggart accepted the job to become Florida State’s next head coach. Just one year after leaving South Florida for Oregon, Taggart is packing his bags yet again to head the Seminoles’ football program.
This might be a dream job for Taggart, and the same should be said for Florida State’s athletic department about a dream hire. No one thought Jimbo Fisher would vacate his position as head coach this soon, but Texas A&M came calling with truck loads of cash.
Now that Taggart is back in the state of Florida, bringing defensive guru Jim Leavitt with him, the Seminoles have a chance to contend for a national title in year one.
Why will Taggart bring national title contention to Tallahassee in his first year with the Seminoles? Here are five reasons.
5. Taggart is a player’s coach
There’s a reason Willie Taggart is such a good recruiter, and it’s because he’s a player’s coach. At Oregon, you would have been hard pressed to find a single player with a negative thing to say about him.
Heck, rewind back to his days at South Florida and Western Kentucky and the same could be said. Players loved going to battle each game with Taggart leading the way and although he could be tough, he was always relatable to his guys. He got the best of his players and they bought into his system.
One of the most important things in coaching is having players buy in. They did that at Western Kentucky as he led the Hilltoppers to a 7-5 record in his final year, same with South Florida when the Bulls went 10-2 in his last season and Oregon turned things around from 4-8 under Mark Helfrich to 7-5 in Taggart’s first season.
Players buy into this guy’s system and his way of coaching, and that’s why Florida State feels good about potential success that’s about to take place in Tallahassee.