FSU Football: Willie Taggart talks changing culture since arrival

FSU football is experiencing a lot of changes under Willie Taggart this spring.

Four months ago before the old regime left for an inferior program, I laid out three things they could do to right the ship at FSU.

One thing was scheduling, but the other two centered around accountability for players and coaches.

The scary thing is in hindsight I’m not sure those things would or could have been accomplished.

Read: 3 Ways To Fix The FSU Program

Willie Taggart couldn’t touch the first one, but he’s directly attacking the other two centered around accountability.

FSU football will be beginning spring practice on March 21, but have been participating in “The Chase” the past couple of weeks which we’ve talked about here.

Taggart spoke with ESPN’s David Hale this week to detail how he’s going about implementing his culture on the program and changes that had to take place:

"To be honest, it’s when things turn around academically. Everywhere I’ve been, when it turns around from that standpoint, football and everything else became a lot easier for us. So that’s a big focus on our football team right now. Every team I’ve taken over, one of the biggest issues is they didn’t play for each other. A lot of selfish guys who didn’t play like it was a gift to be teammates. To me, that’s how it needs to be if you want to win at a high level. And playing for one another, you do everything you can to hold each other accountable. So putting all that together and understanding you can’t hold anyone accountable unless you know ’em, a big part of our deal right now is getting to know each other better on a personal level."

Thoughts

I didn’t mention academically accountability, but that’s the main priority which seemed to be slipping under the old regime.

If players aren’t held accountable there, they’ll think it’s not important to do things when it comes to practice.

The team having selfish guys not playing for one another was an issue the past few years. It wasn’t until Odell Haggins became the interim coach that this team looked like they were having fun again.

Their play magnified that as there was more enthusiasm and pride to be on the FSU football team.

This was magnified during “The Chase” as players were forced to rely on one another to get through drills/workouts. The players are posting videos of groups of them dancing around and having fun again, which posting videos on social media was forbidden under the old regime.

The players want to be on this team and seem to be creating bonds that should be helpful when if and when adversity strikes when the season rolls begins.

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That’s likely going to be the biggest difference in the Taggart era, a culture centered around accountability.