FSU Football: Willie Taggart was never given chance to succeed with Noles

FSU Football will be looking for its third coach in a four season period next season thanks to an impatient and sometimes unrealistic fanbase.

Well, it finally happened – after 21 games as the head coach of the FSU football team, Willie Taggart became the former head coach of the Seminoles after spending the third shortest tenure of any head coach in the history of the program behind two coaches who lasted exactly one season (Ed Williamson in 1947 and Perry Moss in 1959.)

It was almost a known fact after the Seminoles got thumped last Saturday against hated rival Miami that Taggart’s days leading the Noles were numbered – we just didn’t know that the number was going to be just one day after boosters reportedly spent the last week coming up with the nearly $20 million it was going to take.

Hmm…so the FSU football boosters supposedly can come up with $20 million in seven days to get rid of a coach that many had issues with before he even coached his first game last season, but can’t come up with that money to build a football only facility that has been talked about for nearly a decade and now spanned two full time head coaches? Interesting.

Florida State Seminoles Football

After all, it’s not a shock that Taggart was let go after a 9-12 record that included giving up 63 points to Louisville…oh wait, that was the previous coach. Well, Taggart did have the worst record through seven games at 2-5…no, that was actually also the previous coach. Well, he did build the offense line and defense into the problem segments they have been…no, wait.

Get the point? Look, I’m not saying that Taggart has no blame for what took place in the past two seasons because as the clear leader of the FSU football team, the buck stops with him – but it’s a buck that was tattered, abused and left alone by the previous administration that no one seems to want to realize.

So, why is that? Why were there plenty of fans who wanted to give, using an example, offensive coordinator Kendal Briles all the credit when a good play happened but give Taggart all the blame when something bad took place…despite the fact that Briles is calling all the plays this season?

Is it the fact that plenty of FSU football fans have a blind loyalty to the dynasty era that ended nearly two decades ago and think the college football is as easy as it was during that time, despite there being dozens of new programs since that time competing in the FBS for the same players the Noles did?

Maybe, as much as it pains me to say this about my alma mater, it has to do with a segment of the fan base and alumni who were never all that comfortable with a black man being the head coach of the most high profile sports program at the school on a permanent basis.

Whatever the reason are behind some of the resentment toward Taggart, the fact is that he is no longer leading the Seminoles – but did he ever get the chance to truly lead them in the first place?