FSU football has gone through several changes amid the three worst seasons of the last 30 years. Could it have all been avoided after Jimbo Fisher left?
It’s crazy how things can change. FSU football went into the 2017 season coming off a win over Michigan in the Orange Bowl, where they were underdogs by nearly a touchdown
The Noles were ranked top five and faced Alabama, another top-ranked team with the game billed as the biggest opening game ever.
It was a close ballgame until late in the third quarter with FSU’s self-inflicted wounds doomed them. There were a couple of pivotal non-calls that may have changed the course of that game.
However, losing starting QB Deondre Francois for the season in the fourth quarter seemed to change the trajectory of the program.
It wasn’t that Francois was that much of a difference-maker. It was more so Jimbo Fisher had to play a true freshman who was in high school just a couple of months before that game.
That error falls on Jimbo Fisher, and the Noles finished that season 7-6 with Fisher having one foot out the door to Texas A&M.
However, according to advanced metrics, the Noles finished No. 9 in the country with that record. The offense was ranked No. 37 and the defense was ranked No. 6. FSU won it’s last four games that season and looked like a team that could win more than five games in 2018.
One conversation I’ve seen come up time and time again is as a new coach, would you rather take over when Willie Taggart did, or when Mike Norvell did?
I think it’s an easy question to answer for several reasons. Let’s get into it.
Talent
FSU recruiting was in disarray when Willie Taggart was-hired, and his ability to salvage that class, at least on paper, was impressive.
However, he inherited one of the most talented programs in the country.
Yes, the offensive line wasn’t good, and some injuries impacted things. However, there was too much talent to play at the level they did.
Yes, indeed, the talent wasn’t being developed in the latter part of Jimbo Fisher’s tenure. However, it was never developed under Willie Taggart’s regime either.
FSU went from No. 9 to No. 71 overall in SP+ metrics. The offense went from No. 37 to No. 97, and the defense went from No. 6 to No. 37. Special teams went from being ranked No. 8 to No. 96.
The Noles went from playing the fourth toughest schedule in 2017 to the No. 18 toughest schedule. I know Jimbo Fisher left FSU in a mess culturally, and the APR was awful, but the talent was there to win way more than five games.
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.
Organization
I understand Jimbo Fisher left the program in a bind in several different areas. However, most of those could have been addressed with a head coach that understands how to organize and prioritize.
That not only goes to the students but also to the coaching staff that’s assembled, and this seemed to be the area where Willie Taggart fell short the most.
It was like he could not make a mistake before the Virginia Tech game. He made all the right moves in public and understood how to get the fans to rally behind him.
After all, Taggart had 50,000 fans to show up for the FSU spring game in April 2018. However, it was in the details from day-to-day that doomed that team and this program the past two years.
The sheer inability to structure practices for maximum efficiency, inability to game plan and inability to hire coaches that can coordinate their respective phases of the game effectively was his downfall.
Taggart was right, it wasn’t so much a rebuild as it was a realignment. The only problem was he wasn’t capable of aligning those pieces properly.
Now, the program is much more of a rebuild than when Jimbo Fisher left.
Final Thoughts
Willie Taggart did some good things for FSU football. He made sure the players went to class, which still baffles me.
I don’t see how he could get the off the field part right, but fail to get the on the field part right. The APR score didn’t get worse under him, and his staff was able to address the linebacker group in recruiting, which had been awful before he was head coach.
They did add a couple of players on the offensive line that could turn into valuable players in the future.
However, FSU was in a much better spot to be successful when he took over compared to Mike Norvell. The roster was stronger overall, and there weren’t multiple years of negative recruiting/perception to overcome.
Mike Norvell is going to have to prove things on the field first before recruiting can get back to an elite level. He’s going to have to do that while only having one year of players like Marvin Wilson, Tamorrion Terry, Hamsah Nasirildeen, and no Cam Akers.
It’ll likely be even harder in year two with those players gone while possibly losing other key players like Asante Samuel Jr, Cory Durden, Robert Cooper, Joshua Kaindoh, and Janarius Robinson.
That’s why I think Jimbo Fisher left the program is a better place overall than Willie Taggart.