FSU football: How much blame can be placed on Willie Taggart?
By Kelvin Hunt
![WINSTON SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA - OCTOBER 19: Head coach Willie Taggart of the Florida State Seminoles watches his team during the first half of their game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at BB&T Field on October 19, 2019 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) WINSTON SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA - OCTOBER 19: Head coach Willie Taggart of the Florida State Seminoles watches his team during the first half of their game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at BB&T Field on October 19, 2019 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/9ea8a70ba63a9c38caed693097577b42fa28d5b025aa667e85685f112ed81485.jpg)
In-Game Coaching
This is probably the area where Willie Taggart can be blamed the most. This FSU football still looks disorganized at times when it comes to substitutions and the use of timeouts.
The Wake Forest game is prime example of him using timeouts when he shouldn’t have had to which cost him later when the Noles got the ball back with 40 seconds left.
He’s done a good job of making decisions when it comes to going for it on fourth downs and not settling for long field goals. That’s a welcome change from the old staff.
The decision to kick the field goal on fourth and six for the go-ahead score Saturday night was the right one.
However, calling a timeout at the last possible second to potentially ice your own kicker was not.
Taggart provided the reason why he had to call the timeout, but it goes back to lack of un-organization on the sidelines with substitutions.
Also, the inability to get his coordinators to make adjustments is baffling. He continues to allow Harlon Barnett to play soft zone coverages instead of being aggressive.
Kendal Briles continues to run plays (dumb screen passes) the players have proven they can’t consistently execute. Why are we still seeing plays that never work in game seven that we were seeing in game one?
That’s ridiculous and all of that ultimately falls on Willie Taggart.