Taggart coaching at Wisconsin!?

[Bear]

This may be old news, but it is new to me...

 

 

Western Kentucky's Willie Taggart interviews with Wisconsin, South Florida

 

Taggart interviewed with Wisconsin, alongside others schools (before settling on USF). I wonder how the interview went -- since Arkansas hired away the Badgers head coach.

 

 

The comment section is what you really need to see:

 

 

 

I'll concede that he has some desirable components for a Wisconsin coach

But there are a few other things in play here: notably experience and geographical recruiting strength.

 

Wisconsin’s kind of a high-pressure job. Bielema felt the heat as a poor game manager despite winning season after winning season, because the fans believed it was Barry’s infrastructure and Chryst’s play-calling carrying the team (this theory was supported by this year’s 8-5 season, where our one impressive game in the Big Ten Championship happened when our new coordinator got to run his scheme in full for the first time). I like everything I’ve heard about Willie Taggart, but a 36-year-old who’s coached 3 seasons in the Sun Belt is a bit of a lottery ticket for a program with this kind of expectations. Alvarez wasn’t even willing to hand the keys over to highly-regarded assistant Bielema until he got to spend 2 years on the Wisconsin sideline under him first.

 

Also, Taggart is a Florida recruiter, through and through. That’s excellent in a lot of ways, especially for USF (who would be ranked every year if they could just win the Tampa Bay recruiting battle – something they haven’t done yet and especially failed to do with Holtz), but a recruiting specialist for a state like Florida in a state like Wisconsin is a bridge too far, I think. Wisconsin could win with a Florida-heavy roster, but I’m not sure enough elite Florida players would be willing to come all the way to Wisconsin, Taggart or not.

 

When Barry Alvarez (who has near god-like status in Madison because without Barry, Badger football might as well be Indiana or Minnesota) took the job in 1990, he said something to the effect of, “The heart and soul of this team has to be from Wisconsin. The hands and feet, maybe from somewhere else.†Wisconsin takes advantage of a mediocre recruiting ground by building a fence around the state’s linemen (Thomas, Carimi, Zeitler to name some recents) and grabbing skill players from places like Jersey, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri (Dayne, Lee Evans, Scott Tolzein, Ball for instance). It sounds picky, but it’s proven, and regrettably happens in places where Taggart is an unknown. I’m guessing Wisconsin will be looking for someone with ties to the program or at least to the Midwest, with Chryst and Doeren obvious considerations, and former Badger Mel Tucker under dark horse consideration.

 

 

Summary: I’m almost certain Taggart will be an excellent coach at the next level. I just think he fits USF immensely better than he fits Wisconsin. Apologies for the dissertation.

P.S. This goes out the window for Chris Petersen, because he’s Chris Petersen. But I have about as good of a shot of taking the UW job as he does.

 

 

Taggart has shown that he can recruit, and it does show why he would not be a fit for an established program (yet). What do you think of this poster's analysis?

[Bear]

Hang in there Bulls

[BayIslandBull]

Honestly, he would've been a go fit.

[Bull Dozer]

Old news, he interviewed there during the hiring process at USF.

[Bear]

Old news, he interviewed there during the hiring process at USF.

 

 

Thanks! That's exactly WHAT I SAID!

Edited September 27, 2014 by Bear

[GaUSFBull]

Old news, he interviewed there during the hiring process at USF.

I think the point was the analysis. It's actually a darn good one.