FSU Football: Willie Taggart in better shape than Scott Frost, Chip Kelly

FSU football has their heads above water after beating Northern Illinois, and now maybe some people will put pressure on the new coaches still winless.

In the hours that led up to FSU football‘s game against Northern Illinois this past Saturday, you would have thought the Seminoles had lost all three of their games by 20+ points to FCS foes with the way the pundits and so called “experts” were burying the Noles and their new head coach, Willie Taggart.

From College GameDay to online outlets, Taggart was being called everything from overrated to unprepared with some wondering if the clock was already started on finding a new coach – literally three games into the first season.

Florida State Seminoles

At the same time, the name of Nebraska’s new winless head coach (Scott Frost) was mentioned for maybe a tenth of the time as the FSU football leader while UCLA head coach Chip Kelly wasn’t even mentioned other than conversations bashing the father of a Bruins quarterback who expressed his opinion about that team’s O-3 start (granted, UCLA didn’t play Saturday).

While the Seminoles and Taggart deserve some heat for the way the season started – a total of 10 points against FBS foes in the first three games after all the anticipation leading into the season – Saturday’s convincing win over Northern Illinois should send a message to those who cover the sport for a living: focus on those coaches who still haven’t won a game when you shoot venom.

No, I’m not booking tickets to a New Years Six bowl game just because we beat the Huskies this past weekend, but the performance Saturday showed that the Seminoles are in much better shape this season than either the Huskers or the Bruins.

Last weekend’s 46 point blowout loss by Nebraska shows that the Huskers aren’t even close to being ready for the season – and with games left against Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan State and Iowa, a losing season is coming to Lincoln. Meanwhile, the Bruins are 0-3 and have to face Washington, Oregon, USC and Stanford among others so they’ll be under .500.

The Seminoles, at the same point, have plenty of tough games left like Clemson, Miami and Notre Dame – but also have games against struggling Louisville and Wake Forest two out of their next three games and end the season with an exposed Boston College and a Florida team that only dominated this past week because Tennessee imploded, so there is more confidence than weeks ago.

Willie Taggart and FSU football are an easy target from those who dislike the Seminoles for whatever the reason – whether it be off field issues from the past or just hating on how good the Noles have been over the past three decades.

Hell, the comments about Nebraska are always met with talk about their injured players – a pass the Noles didn’t get last year when Deondre Francois went down in week one against Alabama, an injury that helped shaped things to come.

This week, the talk about FSU football isn’t going to be about their convincing win but will likely be prefaced with “Yeah, but…” before people say the Huskies aren’t a good barometer. They may not be, but after this weekend give me the future of Taggart and the Noles before anything in white and red or gold and baby blue.