FSU Football assistant explains how Willie Taggart convinced him to take job

FSU football will have virtually a whole new staff this season, and one of the new faces explains it didn’t take long for him to be convinced to come.

It’s going to be a whole new world for the FSU football team under head coach Willie Taggart – and not just because of the new schemes or the fact that players seem to actually enjoy life again. When the Seminoles take the field against Virginia Tech, the coaching staff will have a whole new look.

Just one assistant coach from the previous administration – former All-American player, longtime assistant and undefeated interim head coach Odell Haggins – will be a part of this year’s staff, meaning nine new coaches are going to be yelling at the Noles to get them into shape after last season.

One of those coaches will be David Kelly, who followed Taggart from Oregon to join the FSU football family. Kelly, however, hasn’t been a coach since the 2013 season in the CFL and was expected to continue in his off-field position he had done with Taggart at both USF and Oregon.

During a recent practice, Kelly explained that the move back to the sideline almost didn’t happen (h/t Seminoles.com)

"(Kelly) and Taggart were flying to Seattle to visit Tre’Shaun Harrison, now a freshman receiver on the Florida State football team.“All of a sudden, (Taggart) hits me with, ‘DK, you know a little about wide receiver. Why don’t you coach it?’” Kelly said.“I looked around, and – I have to be honest – I tried to get out of it initially. But Willie Taggart being Willie Taggart, and the respect I have for him … That’s why he’s such a good recruiter. He finally convinced me after about 30 seconds.”"

Kelly has spent time as a wide receiver coach before at Duke, LSU and Georgia Tech as well as time as the offensive coordinator at Stanford.

Now, we can all be honest and say the move to higher Kelly was due in part to the fact that FSU football was not able to lure former Seminoles star Ron Dugans away from the University of Miami – which necessitated the need for Taggart to look elsewhere.

With that being said, having someone with nearly four decades of coaching experience on his resume can only benefit the wide receivers for the Noles – and the team as a whole.