Florida State quickly fills Jimbo Fisher’s void, hiring Oregon’s Willie Taggart.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Willie Taggart is returning to the Sunshine State, this time as head football coach at Florida State.
Taggart has agreed to become Florida State’s next coach, replacing Jimbo Fisher. Taggart told his Oregon players during a team meeting on Tuesday that he is leaving.
Florida State has called a news conference for Wednesday morning to introduce Taggart.
The 41-year old Bradenton native coached at South Florida for four seasons before going to Oregon. Fisher resigned Friday to accept the opening at Texas A&M .
Taggart has a 47-50 career record, including 7-5 this season, but is known as a rebuilder. He arrived in Eugene after four years at South Florida, where he guided the Bulls from a 2-10 record his first year to a 10-2 mark last year and a spot in the Birmingham Bowl.
Before that he spent three seasons as head coach at his alma mater, Western Kentucky, inheriting a winless program that he turned around with back-to-back winning seasons.
Florida State went 6-6 this year, and since winning 33 of 34 games between 2013 and ’15, including a national championship, the Seminoles are 20-12, including 10-10 in the ACC.
The Seminoles have entered new territory following Fisher’s departure. Taggart, and Odell Haggins — Fisher’s replacement on an interim basis — are the first black head football coaches at Florida State. Haggins led the Seminoles to a 42-10 win over Louisiana-Monroe in Saturday’s regular-season finale and will coach the Seminoles in the Dec. 27 Independence Bowl against Southern Mississippi before handing the reins to Taggart.
This was the first time Florida State had to conduct a coaching search since 1975. Bobby Bowden was the Seminoles’ coach for 34 seasons and put the program on the map with two national championships. Fisher was hired as offensive coordinator in 2007 and was also named as the head-coach-inwaiting. He took over in 2010 following Bowden’s retirement.
Oregon started this past season 4-1 and even briefly popped into the Associated Press rankings, but starting quarterback Justin Herbert broke his collarbone, and the Ducks foundered, going 1-4 without him.
Herbert returned for the final two games, both wins that got the Ducks into a bowl in Taggart’s lone season. Co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Mario Cristobal will be the interim head coach when Oregon faces Boise State in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 16.
Taggart’s contract with Oregon was for $16 million over five years. It included a $3 million buyout if he left before Jan. 31, 2018. He was offered a four year, $20 million extension a week ago when it appeared the Florida State job would be open.
Heupel fills post at Central Florida
Central Florida introduced Josh Heupel as its new football coach. He succeeds Scott Frost, who on Saturday announced he was leaving to become the coach at Nebraska.
Heupel, who has been the offensive coordinator at Missouri the past two seasons, inherits a Knights program that just finished 12-0 to win the American Athletic Conference title. UCF will play Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta on Jan. 1.
He will not coach the Knights in the bowl but will watch in from a booth at Mercedes-Benz stadium. UCF is working on logistics that would allow Frost to coach that game.