FSU Football: Willie Taggart understands the frustration of FSU fans
By Kelvin Hunt
FSU football is in uncharted territory at with 1-2 record and an offense that can’t scored against terrible defenses. We discuss the fan reaction.
FSU football fans are accustomed to winning like no other fans in college football. The Noles have not experienced a losing season in 41 years which is the lifetime of a ton of FSU fans.
I would fall into that category since I turn 40 years old tomorrow. However, the state of the FSU football team after three games is about as low as one can remember, or at least since the 30-0 loss against Wake Forest at home when Jeff Bowden was the offensive coordinator.
The Noles offense is averaging 13 points per game through three games and just five yards per play.
What makes things worse is two of those games have come against a FCS team in Samford and Syracuse who allowed Western Michigan to march up and down the field at over eight yards per play.
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If you leave out the stats and just look at the eye test the offense looks inept. To make things worse, the offense looked much better with a true freshman quarterback going against much tougher defenses last year.
Willie Taggart is known for having explosive offenses, so couple that with the skill player talent on the roster better than he’s ever had and it’s easy to have unreasonably high expectations to score points.
Those expectations coupled with what FSU fans are watching makes it almost unbearable to watch and Coach Taggart understands it as he addressed it in the Syracuse post-game press conference.
Taggart: “Our fans have every right to be upset. There’s a standard here, an expectation, and we’re not living up to it.”
— Tim Linafelt (@Tim_Linafelt) September 15, 2018
Thoughts
Let’s put it in perspective. Yes, the offensive looks Jeff Bowden levels are even worse through three games.
It’s combination of several things happening all at once for Coach Taggart:
- Poor Offensive Line Play
- Subpar QB Play(Francois didn’t play well AT ALL against Syracuse)
- New offensive scheme
Those are the issues and two of those issues are things Coach Taggart inherited from the previous staff. If the previous staff were still here, no the offense wouldn’t look this bad because of familiarity with the offensive scheme.
The only thing Coach Taggart may be guilty of is coach speak regarding how well the team is doing at practice.
I refuse to believe they could have good practices against a FSU’s defense at practice and continue to look that bad in actual games. Willie Taggart knows how to win and has proven it time and time again. He’s shown the ability to make adjustments and he clearly understands the angst/frustration of FSU football fans.
Next. Willie Taggart Blames Offensive Woes On Offensive Line. dark
Now, we just have to see how the season unfolds and if the staff can learn to scheme around the offensive line deficiencies because they aren’t going away anytime soon.