FSU Football: 3 ways Willie Taggart’s staff more superior than old regime

FSU football head coach Willie Taggart has almost completed his staff. Is it already superior to the old regime?

FSU football head coach Willie Taggart’s been on the job just over a month and has already done a lot of great things.

He was able to stabilize the #Tribe18 recruiting class before the early signing period while landing his first five-star recruit in Jaiden Woodbey.

He’s already started targeting student-athletes in future classes too, but one of his biggest tasks he has had is completing his football staff.

Here’s what his staff looks like thus far:

• Harlon Barnett-Defensive Coordinator
• Odell Haggins-Defensive Line
• Greg Frey-Offensive Line
• Raymond Woodie-Linebackers
• Telly Lockette-Tight Ends
• Donte Pimpleton-Running Backs
• Alonzo Hampton-Special Teams/DB’s

Taggart also brought in Irele Oderinde as his strength and conditioning coordinator from Oregon, but that’s not considered one of the 10 position coaches on staff.

He currently has three positions left to fill: wide receivers coach, another defensive backs coach and likely an offensive coordinator(in title only as Taggart will call the plays).

There’s a lot of like about this staff and it’s arguable it’s already superior to the staff the old regime brought to the table.

In fact, let’s look at three reasons Willie Taggart’s staff is already superior.

Social Media Presence

The old regime had almost zero social media presence. The only coach that embraced it and used it to his advantage was Tim Brewster who ironically was one of the better recruiters on the staff.

Coach Taggart is active on social media as are almost all of his coaching hires. Check out this interaction Coach Pimpleton had with a FSU fan.

Recruits and fans see that and will instantly think it’s pretty cool. Check out Coach Barnett.

Well, what do you know just two players he used to coach who are now playing in the NFL. Here’s a 2019 four-star recruit tweeting at Coach Woodie.

That’s three instances of the power of social media the old regime was not using to their benefit.

Better Recruiters

This goes hand in and with the first slide, but this staff is already a better recruiting staff than the old regime.

Jimbo Fisher was an elite recruiter. Coach Odell Haggins is a very good recruiter as was the aforementioned Tim Brewster. Charles Kelly was a good recruiter too.

However, the rest of the staff left a lot to be desired as they were older and out of touch with the younger generation.

The other part to this is how much better these coaches will recruit the state of Florida. FSU used to get destroyed in the Tampa area and that will no longer be the case.

This staff has ridiculous ties to South Florida too where FSU has gotten a ton of elite talent during the old regime run.

The important part to this is stronger Florida ties were needed because Florida likely have a better recruiting staff under Dan Mullen.

Mark Richt has righted the ship in Miami and of course other elite programs like Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame continue to raid the state for talent.

These upgrades should keep FSU at an elite recruiting level.

Younger

This is arguably the biggest factor compared to the old regime. The last staff’s average age was near a decade older than the staff Taggart’s assembled thus far.

The old staff had ONE coach under the age of 50. Only two of Taggart’s coaches are 50 years old or older. Taggart himself is the youngest coach in the ACC at 41 years old.

When it comes to teenagers, someone that’s over 50 years old is considered “old” and “out of touch” to most young folk.

Recruiting is the lifeblood of a program. If you’ve got elite players you win at an elite level. All you have to do is look at Alabama who went 25-2 with a quarterback that could pass well at all.

They had so much talent around him it didn’t matter as they could out physical most teams and win.

Next: Willie Taggart Finding Quality Coaches For FSU

Taggart assembling a staff of coaches young enough to exemplify authority, but young enough to relate and still be “cool” to these kids will pay dividends in the future since they should be able to recruit at an elite level.