(12-05-2017 05:41 PM)StatueKnight Wrote: He did help the USF program provide a better on-field product, but never won a title and did very little to inspire the fanbase seems to me. Now he is the coach at FSU. Do you think this is a good move for the Seminoles? Or is this a really good sales job?
Here's my 100% honest opinion. Taggart is a great recruiter/evaluator of talent. He came to USF when the cupboard was bare (thanks, Skip!) and convinced good players like Mack, Flowers, etc. to come here. I would have loved to see what he could have done with more time.
That said, I don't think he's a great gameday coach and he's too loyal to assistants like Woodie. Most people don't remember this, but Willie's seat was getting a little warm here at USF after his first 2-10 campaign was followed with a 4-8 one. In fact, he was so worried that he burned Quinton Flowers' redshirt just to manage to get to 4-8. We started out slow in his third year before he finally loosened up the offense, and in my opinion QF covered most of his coaching faults (along with Tom Allen's defense). When Allen left for Indiana, he promoted Woodie to DC, which was a disaster (as evidence, see the 2016 Temple game and our inability to make defensive adjustments). He managed to improve a talented Oregon team by 3 whole wins against an easier schedule this year, and only when Justin Herbert was QB. So in my opinion, he's a poor man's version of John Calipari. He can recruit some great players, but I'm not sure he can actually coach them to a title if he runs up against a well coached team.
Just for some perspective, 4 years ago today he was the head coach of Western Kentucky. So that means in 4 years, he will have moved from Bowling Green, KY to Tampa to Eugene to Tallahassee. And he will leave a bunch of Florida kids in Oregon who came there to play for him and never got the chance because they redshirted. That will likely be used against him in recruiting.
And one more thing. Taggart's been the head coach in exactly one bowl game in his meteoric rise to the top (which he lost to Western Kentucky). I doubt most of the FSU fans celebrating have ever even noticed that. It will be interesting to see how well he deals with the expectations coming his way. My prediction is that he doesn't last through the end of that 6 year contract.
USFFan