FSU Recruiting: Willie Taggart taking page from Clemson’s strategy?

FSU recruiting seems to be on the upswing under Willie Taggart in the 2019 class.

FSU recruiting has always operated at a high level no matter who the coach has been. When FSU recruiting started to dip in the late years of Bobby Bowden, Jimbo Fisher was able to right the ship fairly quickly upon taking over as head coach.

The same has happened now that the latter bolted to some school in Texas with Willie Taggart taking over the reigns and preventing a recruiting disaster on short notice with the 2018 class.

Taggart was able to salvage the mess made by the former coach and finished with the No. 11 class in the country. The class wasn’t elite by FSU standards, but was about as good as one could hope for considering the circumstances.

The 2018 recruiting class had 62 percent of its players be considered blue chip players (13 of 21). There was probably one more player in the class that should have been considered a blue chip player (Jordan Young).

Nevertheless, there were not a lot of players brought on that would likely never see the field in some capacity. It’s something the old regime struggled with while in charge.

They brought in huge classes that finished ranked highly, but often consisted of players that never saw the field to play meaningful minutes.

That seems to be something Willie Taggart is going to change in his approach, and its similar to what Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has used to make the Tigers an elite program.

FSU’s Last Four Recruiting Cycles

The former regime finished with the highest recruiting class in the country the past three of four years. FSU recruiting finished No. 3, No. 3, No. 6 and No. 11(Taggart) in the nation.

Let’s take a look at the players the old regime signed(minus the 2018 class Taggart salvaged):

• 2015:  20 recruits (14 of 20) 70 percent blue chip
• 2016:  26 recruits (16 of 26) 61.5 percent blue chip (two players didn’t qualify)
• 2017:  24 recruits (12 of 24) 50 percent blue chip

Which trend do you notice? The old regime was finishing with highly ranked classes, but it was due to the number of recruits taken more so than the number of blue chip players.

Check that ratio of blue chip players going down each year under the old regime. That’s a pretty dramatic drop right?

I think this is something Willie Taggart has identified to improve moving forward. FSU could have taken a couple of more recruits in the 2018 class but finished with 21.

Taggart was able to get that blue chip ratio back to 62 percent and will need to keep that ratio high to compete with the other elite programs in the country.

Clemson’s Last Four Recruiting Cycles

Dabo Swinney has made the college football playoffs three consecutive years and played for two national championships in the same time frame (winning one).

One of the main reasons they’ve been so great is competitive(along with having Deshaun Watson for two of those years) is great recruiting.

Let’s take a look at Clemson’s last four recruiting classes:

• 2015:  26 recruits (12 of 26) 46.1 percent blue chip
• 2016:  21 recruits (13 of 21) 62 percent blue chip
• 2017:  14 recruits (10 of 14) 71.4 percent blue chip
• 2018:  17 recruits (12 of 17) 70.5 percent blue chip

READ: Has Clemson Closed The Recruiting Gap With FSU?

Which trend do you notice? Clemson went the exact opposite of the former FSU regime. Instead of taking huge classes, they began to concentrate on quality over quantity.

It meant they were finishing behind FSU in the rankings, but finished with a higher per player average overall which is the most important stat.

In fact, Clemson has averaged a per player rating of 92.77 the last two years and FSU has an average per player rating of 91 the past two years. That’s almost two full points difference between the two programs.

Taggart’s 2019 Recruiting Class

Willie Taggart salvaged the 2018 recruiting class and has now began work on the 2019 recruiting cycle. FSU recruiting hosted its first junior day this past weekend and it was a bit different from the old regime.

Taggart only invited a small group of targeted players to Tallahassee for his first junior day. The total number of players that showed up was around 30 whereas the old regime would invite a hundred or more.

The smaller atmosphere allows for better individualized attention for each recruit and the difference was huge. Check out some of the things parents of recruits said on Twitter.

That’s 2019 three-star defensive tackle commit Tru Thompson’s father giving his thoughts on the new staff’s approach.

That’s 2020 DE/TE Amari Severson’s mother giving her thoughts on their visit.

Thoughts

It looks like the new staff will be looking for quality over quantity moving forward much like Dabo Swinney has done at Clemson.

This approach accomplishes a couple of things:

• Coaches don’t have to trim as much fat(get rid of players that look like they’ll never contribute).
• Coaches can take a larger class if they want when the talent’s available and not have to worry about numbers.

Next: Why James Blackman Is On A Elite Trajectory

The FSU recruiting brand sells itself and there is huge momentum with the new FSU staff. This new approach with the 2019 class should be the beginning of the return to elite status for FSU football.