Should Taggart be fired this year?

[Bubba Fett]

Keep him until the contract expires, and then after that dump him for a decent SEC coach.

 

This is what happens when we only interview one candidate.

[charsibb]

Keep him until the contract expires, and then after that dump him for a decent SEC coach.

 

This is what happens when we only interview one candidate.

 

Got a link for that?

[Bubba Fett]

 

Keep him until the contract expires, and then after that dump him for a decent SEC coach.

 

This is what happens when we only interview one candidate.

 

Got a link for that?

 

 

I searched for a link but couldn't locate it. I remember hearing that we only physically interviewed Taggart, and it was rumored that we interviewed Nutt, but never did. They called others but only brought Taggart on campus for a real interview.

 

Not sure why we didn't interview more candidates like Randy Shannon, Petrino, and others. Maybe they weren't interested, who knows.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Bubba Fett

[slick1ru2]

It seems he was hired very quickly due to the concern over recruiting.

[ckparrothead]

I don't believe that Taggart is the right guy for USF football.  He continues to get out-coached - which is more evident after half time breaks when the other coaches make their necessary changes that Taggart cannot seem to recognize or overcome.

Secondly, Taggart's personnel choices leave me puzzled.  One easy example of that is the non-relevant use of Flowers which has burned his red shirt.  And, there's the poor choice of using Dunkley at CB.  Bulls have other CBs that can play respectably when USF could use play-makers on Offense.  Bulls Defense didn't seem to miss Dunkley when he was out injured (the safeties were the ones continually burned), but Taggart's Offense is where the lack of speed and athleticism is hurting their chances to stay in games or win games.  Those are just two personnel issues, but there are more examples for another time.

Next season doesn't look to be much different from this year, as Bulls lose A. Davis, D. Welch and M. McFarland (although terrible today), and they also lose three starters from their OL.  I'm not seeing much on current roster that can adequately replace those veteran players; although some will be happy to see a change no matter what on the OL.  Additionally, it doesn't appear that the QB position will be improved either based on what we seen and players returning.  Any freshman QB that USF gets will not come in and make any real difference either, IMO.

If year three will be the same - and that's what I expect - then probably better to just start over now before this team drops any further into irrelevance. 

 

Say what you like about burning the redshirt on Quinton Flowers but the move of Dunkley to corner has been nothing short of brilliant.

[ckparrothead]

I see it this way.

 

Willie Taggart took over and he was relatively screwed with respect to the quarterback position. Skip Holtz left NOTHING in the hopper at that position, and it's the most important position in the sport. Not only was the roster completely void of any talent at the position, but the recruiting groundwork laid out was tenuous as well. Woulard was gone. The best recruiting groundwork had been laid with Chase Litton who was a flake and isn't even attending a college in 2014. Now, in my opinion Willie should've done his absolute best to keep Litton in the fold, but it was still a situation in which he was asked to do jumping jacks on thin ice.

 

Taggart kept Mike White as a recruit, but it was too late in the recruiting process to recruit someone better. He looked on the transfer market and saw Clint Trickett, and my sense is he tried like hell to pull him in. That's a CREDIT to Willie Taggart, even if ultimately Trickett went to West Virginia because of a combination of A.) Dana Holgorsen's offensive prowess, and B.) Trickett's entire family being from there.

 

So what was left after Trickett? I thought he could've made a stronger push for Brandon Mitchell but he had only one year of eligibility and he didn't play so well at NC State anyway (played better than our guys for sure, but wasn't awesome or anything). The only other gettable guy on the transfer market was Steven Bench. So he pulled him in, closed his eyes, crossed his fingers and hoped for the best. Well, he hasn't worked out. There was a reason Penn State didn't want him.

 

That said, this past offseason I think Willie Taggart screwed the pooch on the quarterback recruiting. He had time to come up with a better plan, to come up with some better recruits, and he didn't do that. The best he came up with was Quinton Flowers, a guy most schools were recruiting as a receiver or defensive back. And there's a bad, bad and good involved in the dalliance with Chase Litton...bad to place so many eggs in an uncertain basket, bad that he didn't keep him in the fold, but good that in my opinion Chase Litton was and is a very talented quarterback recruit. So I'm not absolving Taggart here. He needs to be held accountable for some things.

 

But the bottom line is he was absolutely screwed from the start with the quarterback position and it is the thing that has dragged this team down the most the last two years. Therefore I don't think I can make a judgment about Willie Taggart's viability as the head coach of the South Florida Bulls until I see him with a quarterback worth a dog's fart.

 

He's doing a hell of a job recruiting. He has some good people on staff. We need to let this play out until he either A.) has a decent quarterback and is still losing a lot, or B.) shows that he is simply incapable of acquiring a decent quarterback.

 

It's pretty clear that neither of those conditions have been met, yet. He hasn't had a quarterback worth a dog's fart yet. And though he deserves accountability for ONE offseason of shaky quarterback recruiting, that doesn't prove him incapable of recruiting the position, especially since he had the wherewithal to go after two guys I view to be talented enough for the NFL.

Edited November 6, 2014 by ckparrothead

[NCBull]

Great post ck.

[Paisa el Toro]

We can't afford to.

[Sipher]

As I mentioned in another thread. A new head coach gets three years. That should be enough time for them to prove themselves. Let's revisit this topic next year boys.

[raptorcj]

As I mentioned in another thread. A new head coach gets three years. That should be enough time for them to prove themselves. Let's revisit this topic next year boys.

If only...