FSU Football joins coaching change fun among Florida FBS teams

FSU football has the newest coach among the state of Florida’s seven FBS schools – with the longest serving coach being less than two years.

Wednesday morning, FSU football made things official when they introduced Willie Taggart as the newest head coach in the state of Florida. Taggart, who became the 11th head coach in the history of the Seminoles, joins some of the top names in college football who are leading a program in the Sunshine State – although it’s a group without much longevity.

Taggart became the newest coach among the seven schools who play in the FBS level, hired just one day after UCF named Josh Heupel their new head coach and just over a week after the rival Florida Gators announced Dan Mullen as their new coach.

The remaining four coaches? Well, those are just a group of old timers like FAU’s Lane Kiffin and USF’s Charlie Strong (hired December 2016), FIU’s Butch Davis (November 2016) and the veteran of the group, Miami’s Mark Richt (December 2015).

That’s right, the longest serving coach of a FBS school in the state of Florida celebrated his second anniversary on the job this past Monday. From a state that gave you long serving coaches like Bobby Bowden, Steve Spurrier and even Gene McDowell and UCF and Jim Leavitt at USF, the turnover in coaching has been something never seen before.

Taggart – who spent four seasons at USF before leaving for Oregon – also does something rare with his hire, becoming just the fifth coach in history to lead two FBS programs in the state, joining Strong (USF and interim coach at Florida), Davis (FIU and Miami), Randy Shannon (Miami and interim coach at Florida) and Howard Schnellenberger (Miami and FAU).

Without a doubt, the days of a coach spending decades at one school are almost over and it shouldn’t be a surprise to see so much turnover in the college game – but the fact that the longest serving tenure in the state just entered the “terrible twos” is something that not even the most knowledgeable college football expert would have thought possible.

Taking out Bowden’s 34 seasons, FSU football has had their nine full time coaches average spending just over four years in charge – similar to Miami’s last 13 coaches over the last 53 seasons and slightly better than Florida’s four coaches over the last 16 seasons. Turnover has been around in the state…it’s just been well hidden.

Next: Profile of new FSU football coach Willie Taggart

Hopefully, the Seminoles won’t be looking for a new coach any time soon – who knows, maybe they won’t be in the hunt for one in the next three and a half decades.