I don't think anyone expected Willie Taggart to succeed at FSU, but to get fired today was a shock. FSU, despite being in dire financial straits with their Athletic Department put up the $18 Million to buy out Taggart. Add the money it took to bring Taggart from Oregon and you're talking about a $30 Million dollar mistake easily. Taggart will probably go down as one of the top five worst coaching hires in college football history.
Now that FSU is looking to move on to its next HC, we've seen a few names and narratives emerge in the short hours after Taggart's dismissal. From Urban Meyer to Bob Stoops, to Mike Norvell, a lot of names are flying around. There are two big assumptions though going into their coaching search.
- FSU learned it's lesson with Taggart and won't make a bad hire. I've seen quite a few of these takes going around when anyone gets fired, and more likely than not it isn't the case. Florida didn't learn it's lesson after Muschamp and hired Corch Jim McElwain. Miami didn't learn it's lesson with Randy and hired the biggest corch ever in Golden. Michigan, Tennessee, USC, UCLA, etc. have all followed up bad hires with equally bad or even worse hires.
The same people that hired Taggart a year and a half ago will be hiring his successor. The chances they hire another corch are better than them hitting a home run hire. Also, no matter who they hire, they'll have to contend with a good/competent HC at UF and hopefully a coach that finds his rhythm in Diaz.
- FSU is a Top 10 Job. This is one that I don't get. This CBS article describes this position better than I ever could. https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...now-florida-state-has-no-obvious-replacement/
They're going to need a proven program builder to pull them back from the edge of the cliff and clear out the toxicity in their program.
