It’s A-OK in paradise
Willie Taggart is glad to be in what he and FAU faithful refer to as paradise.
And in Boca Raton, he’s looking to make paradise a place he and his family can settle down for good.
“For me and where I’m at in my profession and what we’ve gone through, it was really important that I could get somewhere where I could settle down,” Taggart said on Thursday after being introduced as the Owls’ fifth full-time football coach (and seventh overall).
“My older son, he’s been to three different high schools in four years. I don’t want to do that to my youngest son. It was important that wherever we were going to go, we were going to be there for a while. I thought this was a place I could be there for a while.”
And Florida Atlantic plans on keeping him for a while.
Taggart, who was most recently went 9-12 at Florida State before being fired on Nov. 3 after the Seminoles lost to the Miami Hurricanes, comes to FAU on a five-year deal.
He inherits a program that went 26-13 under previous head coach Lane Kiffin, who stepped down to take over the head coaching reins at Ole Miss, and captured two Conference USA titles in three seasons.
Taggart said it feels great to take over a championship roster and embraces the expectations surrounding the Owls after winning the 2019 C-USA title.
“I don’t have to come in and create any energy, it’s there,” Taggart said. “I just have to come in and build off the momentum our guys have started already.
“You can tell we have some good players, they won a lot of ball games.
Knowing you have a fertile recruiting base to where you can keep players in here, there’s no reason for it not to grow.”
Taggart will be hitting the recruiting trail quickly, with the early signing period starting on Dec. 18. Defensive coordinator and interim coach Glenn Spencer will coach FAU in the Boca Bowl against SMU, but Taggart will be in attendance cheering on the Owls.
He said he and his staff will make it a priority to retain local players. Taggart views Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties as the Owls’ instate recruiting base and the rest of Florida as out of state.
“He blew us away,” FAU athletic director Brian White said. “He’s somebody that had a great reputation coming in from all the research we did as somebody’s that’s a leader, develops student-athletes, someone we think can win here at a high level and I think he’ll be successful in recruiting to FAU and we have a great thing to recruit to.”
Taggart has a 56-62 record as a head coach, but has shown the ability to turn programs around.
He went 7-5 at Oregon in 2017, which went 4-8 in 2016, before leaving for FSU. Taggart coached at Western Kentucky, his alma matter, from 2010-12. He took over a Hilltoppers’ program that went 0-12 in 2009 and had them record back-to-back seven-win seasons in his final two years at WKU.
Taggart coached at USF from 2013-16. The Bulls posted a 6-18 record during Taggart’s first two seasons as coach before going 8-5 in his third and 10-2 in his fourth for the program’s first double-digit win season in school history.
“I don’t believe the last year and a half defines Willie Taggart,” White said. “There are not many people that have turned two programs around out there like Willie Taggart has. He’s been a successful coach for a long time and his last year-and-a-half at Florida State doesn’t define him in my book.”
Taggart is still learning about the Owls. He coached against FAU four times, with his lone win being a 20-0 Western Kentucky victory in the first game at FAU Stadium on Oct. 15, 2011, something he made sure to point out during his news conference.
But he recognizes the foundation former coach Howard Schnellenberger created for the program, the heights Kiffin took it and the growth that he sees ahead.
“FAU is one of the fastest-growing football programs in the country,” Taggart said. “You see how fast this program has gone from the time Coach Schnellenberger started this to where it is now, it just shows what it can be.
“And then you come here and you see the amount of resources our administration put it into it tells you where we’re trying to go and what we’re trying to do. That by itself has me excited about being here.”