FSU Football: Willie Taggart disrespected in ranking of Power Five coaches

FSU football has a new leader in head coach Willie Taggart – but one ranking of the 65 coaches of Power Five teams is showing him no love for 2018.

When Willie Taggart was named the new head coach of the FSU football team in the first week of December, it was a hire praised both inside of Tallahassee and across college football as a move that was going to bring one of the best young, energetic coaches in college football to one of the biggest name programs there is.

Since then, he has taken a recruiting class that was ranked in the bottom half of the FBS when he was hired all the way up to the top 11 nationally while building hype for the Seminoles’ upcoming season that hasn’t been seen in several years – most likely since the national title season back in 2013.

At the same time, there are some wondering if Taggart might be getting too much hype so quickly and if FSU football might still be dealing with some rebuilding needs in the upcoming season with their new leader. Most of those people are outside of Tallahassee, but they are still there.

Recently, CBSSports.com ranked all of the Power Five conference coaches (and included Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly to make it an even 65 coaches ranked) and had Taggart smack dab in the middle of the rankings.

"No. 34 Willie Taggart, Florida StateTaggart drops three spots in the rankings after turning one season at Oregon into the Florida State gig. Opinions varied, as Simmons, (Ben) Kercheval and myself (Tom Fornelli) all had Taggart in our top 25, while both (Dennis) Dodd and (Jerry) Palm had him at 47."

Okay, on the surface this isn’t all that bad considering the fact that Taggart has coached just one season in a Power Five league (going 7-6 last year at Oregon) and does have an overall under .500 record despite turning around every program he has been at.

Where the disrespect comes from is in some of the coaches ranked ahead of the FSU football new leader. The top three are obvious – Alabama’s Nick Saban, Ohio State’s Urban Meyer and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney in that order – but some of the other names in the top 25 are laughable. Here’s some of the “highlights”:

"No. 4 Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&MHe helped restore the pride to the Florida State program, winning a national title, but now he’s charged with taking an A&M program to the heights its fans have yearned for.No. 9 Chip Kelly, UCLAKelly hasn’t coached at the college level since 2012, but his lack of NFL success didn’t do much harm to how he’s viewed in the college world.No. 13 Dan Mullen, FloridaWhile he doesn’t have the overall accomplishments that other coaches in these rankings have to this point, the fact he accomplished what he did at Mississippi State carries quite a bit of weight with the voters.No. 17 Mark Richt, MiamiNo. 22 David Cutcliffe, DukeIt’s clear that some of us value what Cutcliffe has been able to accomplish with the Duke program more than others as Ben Kercheval had Cutcliffe at 11 in his rankings"

We all know my feelings about the man who used to coach FSU football, but he’s going to be overrated because of his name and recent headlines. You’re going to tell me that Taggart is below a man who hasn’t coached college football in six season, a coach who had a losing season two years ago at Mississippi State and the coach of Duke football? Child, please.

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There is only way for Willie Taggart can go out and prove people like Dennis Dodd, Jerry Palm and others wrong – turn FSU football around this coming season and show why the Seminoles made the right choice.