As new FSU coach
Willie Taggart continues to fill out an “egoless” staff, he wants the focus of his assistant coaches to be on the players.
TALLAHASSEE — New Florida State football coach Willie Taggart is not in a rush to hire assistant coaches.
But as Taggart continues to fill out his FSU coaching staff, there is one requirement of utmost importance: the ability to be a strong mentor for the Seminoles.
“I’m a big believer that when these young people turn about 22, 23 years old, they’re pretty much who they’re going to be the rest of their life. It’s so critical that we help them become the men that they want to be, and sometimes you don’t get that. They need that more than anything,” Taggart said Thursday.
“You see so often that these kids become great football players. You take football away from them, and they’re in trouble or something bad happens. They haven’t learned anything else. It’s our job as coaches to make sure that we help them with that.”
The first two weeks of Taggart’s coaching tenure at Florida State have been filled with “recruiting, recruiting, recruiting,”
as he likes to say.
While trying to salvage FSU’s 2018 recruiting class, which dropped from eighth to outside of the Top 50 nationally after former coach Jimbo Fisher’s departure, Taggart has also added three assistant coaches with hopes of completing his new FSU coaching staff by Jan. 1.
So far, Taggart has hired three assistants he has already worked with at previous stops during his coaching career.
Telly Lockette, who coached running backs at Oregon State this season, will be FSU’s new tight ends coach. Lockette worked with Taggart at USF, and is known for being the head coach of former FSU standout running backs Devonta Freeman and Dalvin Cook at Miami Central High School.
Taggart also hired Donte Pimpleton, FSU’s new running backs coach, and Raymond Woodie, a defensive assistant. Both coaches worked with Taggart at Western Kentucky, USF and Oregon.
Taggart still needs to find a defensive coordinator, among other positions on his staff. He remains confident there will be a number of coaches to choose from because of the allure of Florida State’s program.
As Taggart hopes to fill “an egoless staff,” he wants the focus of his assistant coaches to be centered on the players.
“There are plenty of coaches out there that know Xs and Os, but if we’re not touching the hearts and minds of our players and getting them to play hard, those Xs and Os aren’t going to matter at all,” Taggart said.
“It’s got to be the right fit. If not, it’s not going to work. If we’re not a tight group as a staff, we can’t expect our players to be a tight group. It’s got to be that way.”
As for the current group of Seminoles preparing for the Independence Bowl against Southern Miss on Wednesday, interim coach Odell Haggins has relied on several experienced quality control coaches to replace assistants Tim Brewster and Jay Graham who left with Fisher for Texas A&M.
Jerry Johnson has coached the defensive tackles while Haggins has taken a larger oversight role as interim coach, while David Spurlock is coaching the tight ends in place of Brewster, and Mike Warren is coaching the running backs and special teams in place of Graham.
Quarterbacks coach Randy Sanders is still coaching the offense, and will call plays for the Seminoles despite being introduced as East Tennessee State’s new head football coach this week.
“All the coaches are doing a helluva job,” Haggins said Thursday. “Everybody is taking the bull by the horn, and stepping up.”