FSU Football: Willie Taggart aims to turn things around after losing season
By Jason Parker
FSU football suffered the first losing season in decades last season, but the second year coach has all the confidence in the world that things will change.
When the final seconds ticked away during the FSU football regular season finale for the 2018 campaign, the reality set in for those in garnet and gold: the first season under head coach Willie Taggart was going to end with the program’s first season under .500 in over four decades, when the Noles went 5-6 during the 1976 season.
It was a year to remember if you were Taggart or a fan of the Seminoles – both with the way things went on and off of the field – but as he prepares for the second season in Tallahassee, the head Nole seems pretty confident.
During an event in Miami Gardens last Friday as the final stop for the annual FSU Football Seminole Boosters coach’s tour for 2019, Taggart spoke with Chop Chat about a variety of topics – and something was quite noticeable about him: the head coach has the same positive personality he did before what took place last season.
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Why, you may ask, would someone coming off a losing season be so positive? Quite frankly, it’s because of what he has seen in the months that have followed.
"“I see our team holding each other accountable and they’re doing things the right way and that’s a huge step in the right direction. But we’re going to be good. We have a player run team instead of a coach run football team and our guys are really starting to understand that now and we’re getting good results from it. That’s why year two I feel so much better and it’s in every aspect of the program.”"
There is no doubt that FSU football is going to go one of two ways this coming season – either the Seminoles are going to be a surprise team that will make it back to a decent bowl game or another collapse in the cards and the Noles could be looking for a new coach to lead them into the 2020 season.
For Taggart, the message is clear that it’s not just about making it to a bowl game but about making it back to one of the bigger New Years Six bowl games – a standard set by FSU football legends before.
"“We want to win, we want to win big. We’re going to do everything we can and work our butts off to get back to that. Just getting to a bowl game is not our standard here.”"
More. 5 players that need to step up in 2019. light
Critics are still going to say what they want about Taggart and the FSU football team, but I would be more than willing to bet on them making it back to a bigger bowl game a long time before the program suffers through another losing season.