(11-05-2019 11:38 AM)AllTideUp Wrote: Taggart was a dead man walking. His comments earlier in the year about the lack of proper conditioning for his team was proof positive this was amateur hour.
It was a bad idea to snag him from Oregon and now FSU must pay the price for it.
It looks bad to fire a guy in his 2nd season, but there was no reason to think it was going to turn around. I think it's dubious that they are on the brink of hiring Bob Stoops, but I could be wrong...who knows. Either way, FSU needed to start from scratch.
Frankly, they are in too weak a conference for even a mediocre coach not to win 8-9 games a year. When you combine that with the pressure of in-state rivals, the SEC in general, and a preeminent Clemson program; Florida State could not stand pat.
Their next direction might not improve the situation, but they had to try.
Yep, Bob Stoops, like Urban Meyer, will only come back in to coach a very high profile school that needs a little fixing up, not an entire renovation. And so far, unlike Urban, Stoops has shown little real interest in doing even that.
When he stepped away from OU his reasons were the age at which his father died, and a desire to spend time with his family. I'd say that Mark Stoops is the likelier candidate.
It's one thing to head to USC if you are Urban, and enjoy the big lights, and bask in the history of a storied program that is almost 2 decades past its last glory. Urban has nowhere to go but up and all the press and exposure in the world to sell his efforts for him.
It's quite another to go to another program, less than 10 years since its prior glory and rebuild from scratch in a place where the competition for news time and players is massive. USC is the premier program in California, and many would say the all time premier program in the PAC12, and competition there is down. Florida State is the #2 program in the state of Florida, was only famous because of one coach, Bobby Bowden, and competes for airtime, and athletes with the most successful programs in the nation and does that on a daily basis. What's more they aren't even the premier football program of the ACC anymore, Clemson is.
Florida State is a great brand and that will work for them, but not like USC's brand works for them when in the hands of a proven coach.
Urban will have the luxury of nowhere to go but up and the patience of the locals to get there, and the added blessing that USC has not lost support from donors in spite of languishing in the wilderness since 2004.
Florida State is trying to hold onto donor involvement, trying to keep itself at the top in a state with 2 arch rivals and 2 growing programs one of which has more recent success than they do. And if there isn't immediate improvement the tenure of the next head man might be as short as this one's was.
My sense is that there isn't a top coach out there to take it and my proof is that if there was, they wouldn't have hired Taggert in the first place.
And then there's Mullin. Florida finally has hired a competent guy to coach their football team. The recruiting advantage has shifted to the Gators and it's going to be hard to get it back.
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Florida State fires Willie Taggart
