FSU Football: Willie Taggart a victim of new impatient fan mentality

FSU football is struggling in their first season under their new head coach, who is learning quickly he isn’t going to get the benefit of time to learn.

In the first two games of the FSU football program’s 2010 season under their first year head coach, the Seminoles had a 1-1 record that included a blowout win over Samford and a 30 point loss to Oklahoma. In 1976, legendary head coach Bobby Bowden started off his Seminoles tenure with three losses by a combined 92-21, including a 47 point beatdown by rival Miami.

Former coach Darrell Mudra lost his first eight games in the 1974 season while Bill Peterson, who was the original success story as a FSU football head coach, went 3-6-1 his first season before going 9-1-1 just four seasons later. In 1971, Larry Jones won his first five games with the Seminoles – and was 0-11 just two seasons later and out of a job.

None of them, and I mean NONE of them, have had to endure the hell that current head coach Willie Taggart has been dealing with over the past two weeks after laying an egg in the opener against Virginia Tech and barely surviving against Samford – a result of the new attitude among fans and the media where coaches are given a short window to succeed.

For the record, I am not saying that fans should be satisfied with what the Noles have done in the first two games – in fact, you should be mad as heck about what has taken place. But, for those already wanting a coaching change, it’s time to pump the breaks.

Of course, some of this has to do with the preseason hype that surrounded Taggart coming back to his home state to coach the Seminoles. From fans and alumni to media members (including us at Chop Chat), we spent all off-season talking about all the good things that were going to take place – 10 wins, competing for the ACC again – without taking a moment to be realistic.

I’ve already gotten into why FSU football fans need to get fully on board with Taggart they way they did with previous coaches who started off rough, so that’s not what this is about. This is about why fans all of a sudden have a shot fuse when it comes to giving things time.

Is it because fans think things should be as easy now as it was during the dynasty era, when there were fewer teams in college football for the talent to be spread and less competition in a much weaker ACC? Is it because people are mad about how the last coach left and want to be better than him just to show that man up?

It could be those reasons and plenty of others we won’t go into here. The bottom line is simple: Willie Taggart is not going to get the benefit of the doubt or as much time as any previous FSU football coach or any major college coach in the past. Is that fair? Not at all. Is it the reality? Sadly, yes.