FSU’s Taggart hire gives me optimism.
My fellow Floridians, I am pleased to report the unemployment rate for college football coaches in the state has finally reached 0.0 percent.
The labor milestone was reached Wednesday when Florida State introduced Willie Taggart. It’s been 57 years since Florida and FSU brought in new coaches the same year.
For milestone’s sake, we’ll say UCF also hired a new coach in 1960 even though it didn’t exist.
In the past two dizzying weeks, $74.5 million worth of contracts were committed to Taggart, Dan Mullen and Josh Heupel.
Frankly, the whole thing has given me the Willies.
I don’t mean the creepy kind you’d get if you inadvertently walked in on Jimbo Fisher kissing a steer. I mean a feeling of enthusiasm and optimism that happy days might be here again.
Allow me to take off my objective journalist hat and speak as a Floridian for a moment.
We live in America’s greatest
When Taggart got to campus Wednesday, he went to the 50yard line at Doak Campbell Stadium, raised his arms and said, “I made it!”
college football state. It’s basically our birthright to have three top-five teams, just like it was when Miami, FSU and UF took turns ruling the world.
Somehow, we let things slide.
I blame the Russians, though some lay it on Will Muschamp. Whatever, we reached a new low in 2017 when UF and FSU combined to score approximately 38 points all season.
UCF’s problem was that it scored too much, which caused Nebraska to kidnap Scott Frost. All this led to the most critical fortnight in state hiring history.
If we brought in three duds, Iowa might start making fun of us. Enter Mullen. If you can make it in Starkville, you can make it anywhere. Especially a football paradise like Gainesville.
Next up on Tuesday was Heupel, who seems cloned from Frost DNA.
And on Wednesday, we got Willie.
No doubt, it’s easy to win opening press conferences. And as an objective journalist, I tried to find warning signs with Taggart.
You could start with his 47-50 career record. But
Taggart is a turnaround artist. He’s specialized in turning two-win programs into double-digit winners.
His first game at USF was a 53-21 loss to McNeese State. Taggart recruited like a demon, adapted his offense to fit the talent and the Bulls eventually won 17 of his final 21 games.
He also has that everundefinable “it” factor. He’s part cool, part cocky, part homespun and all positive.
The Tampa Bay Times put out a Willie-speak guide, gleaned from Taggart’s time at USF. Among the phrases he lives by:
“Have a great day if you want to.”
“Attack the day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.”
“Who has it better than us?”
The proper answer for college football fans in this state — Nobody!
One thing’s certain. Taggart knows how to play to the crowd.
He talked about growing up in a family of FSU fanatics in Bradenton. Once he became a coach, he knew where he wanted to end up.
When Taggart got to campus Wednesday, he went to the 50-yard line at Doak Campbell Stadium, raised his arms and said, “I made it!”
He also apologized to Oregon for leaving after one year and said how painful it was to leave Nike U. Contrast that to Fisher saying it was a “no-brainer” to leave FSU for Texas A&M.
It’s as if Taggart asked himself beforehand, “How can I differentiate myself from Jimbo and make these people love me?”
Based on Wednesday’s lovefest, it worked.
Tallahassee has the Willies. So does Gainesville, and they should quickly cure Orlando’s case of the post-Frost blues.
That by no means guarantees the state of Florida will reclaim its rightful place atop the college football world.
But when it comes to hiring new coaches the past two weeks, nobody has done it better than us.