South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
To Owls, he’s letter-perfect
Taggart being counted on to push FAU ahead
BOCA RATON — Willie Taggart caught himself.
When addressing reporters after his introductory news conference, the former Florida State and new Florida Atlantic football coach started saying “FSU” before correcting himself and saying “FAU.”
Taggart’s wife, Taneshia,
warned him about this happening. Luckily for him, the slip of the tongue only occurred in front of reporters Thursday and not while he was at the podium.
“My wife and I talked about it all last night and she said you better not do that,” Taggart quipped. “She said you better just say ‘Florida Atlantic University.’ ”
Outside of being in the Sunshine State and the similarities in acronyms, FSU and FAU are significantly different.
The Seminoles are a Power Five program looking to regain its previous glory. The Owls are a 19-year-old Group of Five football team that appears to be on the rise.
FAU has gone 26-13 and won two Conference USA titles in the past three seasons. Taggart called the Owls “one of the fastest-grow
ing football programs in the country.”
Similar to previous coach Lane Kiffin, Taggart has the opportunity to get back on track at FAU. Taggart was fired Nov. 3 after the Seminoles lost to the Miami Hurricanes.
At FSU, he went 9-12 and 6-9 in the ACC from 2018-19.
The Seminoles’ 5-7 record in 2018 was their first losing season since 1976.
What did he learn from his midseason firing?
“Better win fast,” Taggart said with a slight chuckle. “I thought we had things going in the right direction. Unfortunately, we just didn’t get enough time to finish it.
“Florida State is a prideful place with great tradition and they’ve never been in a situation like that before, so nobody knew how to get out of it or knew how long [it would take]. Everybody just wanted to win again, but it doesn’t work that way.”
FAU is betting that Taggart’s experience before going to FSU and reputation as a program-builder is a better indicator of his abilities as a coach than his time at FSU.
Taggart went 7-5 at Oregon
in 2017, which went 4-8 in 2016, before leaving for FSU. He took over a Western Kentucky program
(2010-13) that went 0-12 in
2009 and led it to back-toback seven-win seasons in his final two years.
USF went 8-16 in the two seasons before Taggart took over the head coaching reins. The Bulls posted an
18-7 record during his final two seasons with the team, with the 10-2 record in his fourth and final year being the program’s first doubledigit-win season in school history.
“There’s not many people that have turned two programs around out there like Willie Taggart has,” FAU athletic director Brian White said. “He’s been a successful coach for a long time, and his last year-anda-half at Florida State doesn’t define him in my book.”