Willie Taggart: Accountability still the key for ‘Noles success

Willie Taggart addressed the media Monday morning and spoke about what’s next for the team after its first win of the season over Samford.

Willie Taggart isn’t one to shy away from the tough questions following the ‘Noles performances in the first two games of the season.

It took a late fourth quarter comeback over FCS school Samford to notch his first win as FSU football head coach.

There are lots of questions regarding what it’ll take to fix this team. We addressed three things we thought the offense could do to fix their woes Monday.

However, when we get down to the nitty-gritty, it’s all about holding people accountable according to Coach Taggart as he spoke about it near the end of the press conference about what he’s telling his players:

"You stay the course. You be honest about everything. You make them understand the situation you’re in. Everybody’s not going to be happy when you just don’t play the way that everyone wants you to play and that’s part of it. That’s why this game is so great. You have so many critics and so many opinions.So understanding that, but staying true and locked into the goals that we set out for ourselves and be real with ourselves when we’re watching film, while we’re doing what we’re supposed to. If we’re not then there’s no need to pout your head, put your head down or get upset. Just get back to work and make sure those things don’t happen. And so we try to be real. We tell each coach and player, look at yourself in the mirror: Are you doing enough?I tell all the players, everybody wants to play. Are you up here enough watching film? Are you doing things on your own so you can play and so you can do the things that you need to do to be successful. And our guys are learning that."

Thoughts

I couldn’t have said it better. Willie Taggart didn’t seemingly make all the right moves in the off-season by accident.

He’s a very calculating individual that has had success in turning programs around. Now, it’s easy to say FSU football isn’t a program that needs to be turned around because of the talent on the roster.

However, when you’re playing guys on the offensive line that shouldn’t be playing yet or your linebacker core had a total of 37 total tackles coming in the season things can get funky.

I think I was guilty of just looking at the roster and the stars beside the names and then looking at the schedule and equating wins based on potential. I knew we’d have an experienced quarterback but didn’t know the offensive line would be marred with injuries so quickly, not that they were great to start with.

Last year’s problem was mainly starting a true freshman quarterback for 12 games.

However, this team is a totally different team with different personnel at some key positions. I do think this team will get better as the year goes on. It’s shown it in spurts here and there on both sides of the ball.

But this team’s ability to hold one another AND the coaches accountable is what’s going to either make or break this team in 2018.