FSU football: Did Jimbo Fisher leave Noles in better shape than Taggart?

By Kelvin Hunt | Jun 28, 2020

TALLAHASSEE, FL - NOVEMBER 2: Chief Osceola and Renegade of the Florida State Seminoles plants the spear at mid-field before the game against the Miami Hurricanes at Doak Campbell Stadium on Bobby Bowden Field on November 2, 2019 in Tallahassee, Florida. Miami defeated Florida State 27 to 10. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /

Recruiting

I mentioned how Willie Taggart saved the 2018 recruiting class on paper. I say on paper because it was a transitional class that has suffered nearly 50 percent attrition.

However, the way the Noles ended the 2017 season helped put the Noles in a situation that could be sold to recruits. They had won their last four games, including a 16 point road win over rival Florida.

The other wins were against teams you’d expect FSU football to roll through, and they did for the most part.

All Willie Taggart had to do was point to how they finished the season and sell his vision of what he had accomplished up to that point. It was a much-easier sale at the time because the 2017 season was the only “down” season in nearly a decade.

That’s why he was able to hold the No. 1 recruiting class in April 2018 before it all began to fall apart after the Virginia Tech loss.

Mike Norvell is having to follow up the past three mediocre seasons, which is a much harder sale right now, not to mention he’s inheriting less talent overall than what Taggart did.

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