Around a year ago I wrote about how much I liked Oregon hiring Willie Taggart as their head coach. He succeeded at Western Kentucky. He turned South Florida into a viable football program. So, I thought this was more than enough for him to earn a big time job like the head football coach at Oregon. Don’t get it twisted either. I know Oregon only won 7 games this year, and only 4 the year before, but under Chip Kelly and Mark Helfrich, Oregon had become a power football school. They are also located in Eugene, which happens to be where Phil Knight, Mr Nike, presides. They had anything and everything Nike had to offer at their disposal. That’s why Oregon had a million different uniforms and could pull in all kinds of recruits from all over the country. How cool stuff looks now is a big deal with recruits. I know it sounds vain and stupid, but it’s the truth. These kids want to wear cool stuff, and for awhile, Oregon had the coolest stuff.

In a shock to me, other writers, and players on the Oregon football team, Taggart bolted for the vacant Florida State job. First off, I get why he did it, but I don’t agree with how he did it. I’ll touch on why I think he did it first. It’s easier to get to the playoff in the ACC. Clemson is the big dog in that conference, but now that the committee has no problem taking 2 teams from a conference, who’s to say that FSU won’t rejoin Clemson as a perennial power. The Pac 12 is tougher. USC, Washington, Stanford and to a lesser extent, UCLA and Washington State are always competitive. Oregon has a tougher road to the playoff. Taggart will also get great recruits right in his backyard. He’s familiar with Florida, and convincing kids to go to FSU will be easier than what he had to do at USF. He is also making a great amount of money now. FSU is also a historical program. Oregon has recent success, but FSU has been great since the early 90’s. For these reasons I get why he took the job.

The things Taggart said before taking the job, and how he handled his exit was just terrible. It was the absolute wrong way to leave a school. He said, only a day or 2 before bolting, that he wasn’t going anywhere. He told the media and his players as much. He went into recruits homes and told the players and their parents that he was going to be the coach at Oregon next season. These players have taken to social media to say as much. You cannot, in this day and age of coddled players and recruits, tell them lies. They will go to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook and crush you with their words. The whole world is a platform, and these kids know this. They are not dumb.

It seems like now the truth about Willie Taggart is coming out. There is no denying that he is a great coach. He has won pretty big everywhere he has coached. I think, had he stayed at Oregon, they could’ve returned to the top 15 next season and been a real threat in the Pac 12. But, he bolted for what many deemed a “better” job. This seems to be his move. He is like Jim Harbaugh. People rail on Harbaugh for leaving every place he has coached after 3 or 4 years. In Taggart‘s case, he seems to only give you 2 seasons at most before he takes off. An even better comparison, and I’m totally taking this from Tony Kornheiser, how is he any different from Lane Kiffin? Isn’t this Kiffin’s move? He coached the Raiders for a year, realized he was in over his head and left for the vacant University of Tennessee job. Then, when the USC job opened up the very next year, he left for that. After he failed there he took a job as a coordinator at Alabama. Then, when things got tough with Saban, he took off for the Florida Atlantic job. And now, he’s looking for a bigger head coaching gig.

Basically, and I wrote about this a week or so ago, these big time places have no continuity with their coaching staffs. I hope Taggart succeeds because I like him. He’s a no nonsense coach that doesn’t coddle his players, no matter how many stars they had in high school. But, this trend of his to bolt is definitely a stain that he is going to have to live with. Recruits are going to look at him different now too. They may not give him their full trust. We will see what happens, and FSU is not the type of place a coach just leaves after a year or 2, but in the case of Willie Taggart, you never know. I still hold him in high regard, but, after what has happened this week, I might not think of him as highly as I once did. Here’s wishing him luck, but also, he needs to learn how to handle these transitions better when the next one comes.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is looking forward to the day that Oregon and Nike have a new uniform for every quarter of the game. Hell , why not every play?

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.