Why FSU Football history shows improved 2nd season under Willie Taggart

FSU football has had losing seasons before in the first year of a new coach, but history shows that for the most part year two is a different story.

It has been documented plenty by us here at Chop Chat and…well, essentially everywhere else that the FSU football team did something last season that hadn’t been done in decades: lost more games than they won as the Seminoles had their first losing campaign since the first season under legendary head coach Bobby Bowden in 1976.

The 5-7 season under first year head coach Willie Taggart was nowhere close to what many people expected from the Seminoles before – but fans of FSU football for their entire existence know that it is more normal than some may want to admit.

In fact, of the 10 full times coaches who have led the Noles since the program started in the 1947 season, six of them have started their careers in Tallahassee with a losing campaign – and of the previous seven coaches who lasted more than one season, just two had a losing season in their second year with the program.

More often than not, FSU football has seen an improvement from year one to year two under their head coaches – with five of the previous seven coaches to last multiple seasons seeing a higher win total.

"Don Veller: 7-1 (1948) to 9-1 (1949, including first bowl game in program history)Tom Nugent: 5-5 (1953) to 8-4 (1954, including bowl game)Bill Peterson: 3-6-1 (1960) to 4-5-1 (1961)Darrell Mudra: 1-10 (1974) to 3-8 (1975)Bobby Bowden: 5-6 (1976) to 10-2 (1977, the first double digit win season in program history)"

Both coaches who saw a decrease in win totals still produced winning seasons for FSU football as Larry Jones went from 8-4 and a Fiesta Bowl bid in 1971 to 7-4 the following season – and the golden child in the eyes of some delusional fans, the former “leader” of the Seminoles before Taggart, went from 10-4 and an Atlantic Division title in 2010 to 9-4 and the Champs Sports Bowl the next season.

Now, of course I am not saying that the Seminoles are guaranteed a double digit win season at all in 2019 – but between a much more manageable schedule, players having been in the system for over a year now and the general amount of talent, there is no reason to be overly worried that another losing season is in the cards.

After all, this was a team who was one blown call from ACC refs (imagine that) from being bowl eligible last season and us not even having this conversation.