Can Willie Taggart be most successful first year coach all-time for Noles?

Willie Taggart became the 10th head coach in the history of the Seminoles – and has a chance to have the top season ever for a first year Noles leader.

To say that the pressure is on new FSU football head coach Willie Taggart would be quite an understatement. Though he has not coached a down in a game yet for the Seminoles and won’t do so for another two and a half months, there are plenty of people who are expecting championship or bust very quickly for just the 10th man to coach the program.

We all know about the pressure of bouncing back from the disappointments of 2017 – an odd sentence considering the team had a winning record and went to a bowl game, but you get the point – and how the Noles are going to have to attempt that against arguably the toughest schedule in all of the FBS.

Now, we’re going to throw another log on the fire of expectations and ask this: can Willie Taggart have the best first season of any coach in FSU football history?

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Granted, it’s a small sample size considering their have just been nine coaches in the previous 71 seasons – with Bobby Bowden being the leader for 34 of those campaigns – but he also doesn’t have all that much to compete against when you look at the numbers.

Of the nine previous coaches, just four of them had a none losing record in their first season – Don Veller at 7-1 in 1948, Tom Nugent at 5-5 in 1953, Larry Jones at 8-4 in 1971 and the previous coach who went 10-4 in the 2010 season. Heck, even the great Bowden had a losing record (5-6 in 1976 that was helped by three wins to end the year).

Just two of those coaches – Jones and the coach who remain nameless – went to a bowl game in their first season and only the last coach was able to beat both rivals Florida and Miami in his debut campaign. Needless to say, the bar is set pretty low when you look at the history of FSU football.

So, what does Willie Taggart need to do to be considered the most successful debut coach in the history of the program?

Well, while all of us would love to see the Seminoles go undefeated, win the ACC for the first time since 2014 and make it back to the College Football Playoff, we need to be realistic for a second: this is a season of getting used to the new coaching staff, new schemes along with playing one hellacious schedule of games.

With the toughest five games on paper (Virginia Tech, at Miami, Clemson, at Notre Dame and Florida) awaiting the Noles, an argument can be made that Taggart must win three of those games to be considered a success – possibly at least two as long as their are no other slip ups along the way to inferior foes.

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If that takes place, the Seminoles will be between 9-3 and 10-2 in the regular season and back in the hunt for the ACC Atlantic Division again. Add that with a strong bowl showing and Willie Taggart won’t only have the most successful season for a debut FSU football coach, but maybe one of the best debuts of any coach in college football history.