Willie Taggart
Willie Taggart was born in Bradenton, Florida, United States on August 27th, 1976 and is the Football Coach. At the age of 47, Willie Taggart biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Willie Taggart (born August 27, 1976) is an American football college coach who is the head coach at Florida Atlantic University (FAU).
Taggart most recently served as the head coach at Florida State University.
He has held the head coach position at four NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision programs: Western Kentucky (2009 to 2012 seasons); South Florida (2013 to 2016 seasons); Oregon (2017 season); and Florida State (2018 season and part of the 2019 season -- through November 3, 2019).
At all four schools, he was the first African-American to be hired as the head coach.
Personal life
Taggart and his wife, Taneshia, have two sons, Willie Jr. and Jackson, and one daughter, Morgan.
Playing career
After leading the Hurricanes to the state 5A Championship game, Taggart was a prep standout at Manatee High School in Bradenton, Florida, where he was the first team all-state and all-conference pick as a senior. He coached the football team to the state championship in his junior season and helped the school post a 26-1-4 record in the two years, while still averaged more than 3,000 yards passing and 975 yards on the ground.
Taggart played for for the Western Kentucky University (WKU) Hilltoppers from 1995 to 1998, becoming one of only three WKU players to play in the last five years and one of only four Hilltoppers players to have his jersey retired after high school. He was a finalist for the prestigious Walter Payton Award, which is an annual award given to the best offensive player in I-AA football, in each of his two collegiate seasons. In 1997, Taggart came fourth in the polling and seventh as a senior the following year. He was also the 1998 I-AA Independents' Offensive Player of the Year as a senior. Jim Harbaugh recruited Tag Harbaugh to play for his father, Jack Harbaugh, at WKU.
Coaching career
Taggart continued to work at the university as an assistant until 2006, serving as co-offensive coordinator under Jack Harbaugh on the Hilltoppers' 2002 Division I-AA national champions after graduating from WKU in 1998. In the final years of his NFL career, he worked alongside Harbaugh's son Jim, who had been an unpaid assistant coach under his father.
Jim Harbaugh, the Stanford Cardinal football head coach, was hired by Taggart as his running backs coach after the 2006 season. Taggart appeared in those roles for two seasons as the young Doak Walker Award winner and Heisman runner-up Toby Gerhart turned into a famous actor during that time. In Taggart's home state of Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and Riverside County, California, the younger Harbaugh assigned Taggart responsibility for recruiting in Taggart's home state, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and Riverside County, California.
Taggart resigned from Stanford as the running backs coach in order to serve as the head football coach of Western Kentucky, his alma-mater. The Hilltoppers snapped a 26-game losing streak in their first year under Taggart, while ending the season with a record of 2–10.
In 2011, Taggart led WKU to a 7-5 record, where the Hilltoppers lost their first four games of the season but then won 7 of their last 8 games. Despite having a winning record, they were not invited to a bowl game this year. In 2012, Tagt led WKU to a bowl-eligible record of 7–5. On ESPN, the Hilltoppers accepted an invitation to play Central Michigan in the Little Caesars Bowl on December 26, 2012. However, Taggart did not coach in this bowl game because he had already accepted the head coaching position with the South Florida Bulls on December 7, 2012.
Taggart took over as head coach at the University of South Florida in his native Tampa Bay area on December 7, 2012.
Taggart led the Bulls to a 2–10 record in his first season. Taggart's crew doubled the number of victories and ended with a 4–8 record the following season. Taggart made several personnel changes, including the offensive and defensive coordinators, during the offseason. The upgrade of plans as well as the growth of his first two recruiting classes provided the team with much-needed energy and depth.
The Bulls began the season 1–3 in 2015, with quarterback Quinton Flowers leading the way and running back Marlon Mack's debut in the regular season at 8–5 and earning bowl eligibility for the first time in five years. In the Miami Beach Bowl, the Bulls lost to WKU.
The Bulls went 10–2 and took home a piece of the AAC East division in 2016. This was the Bulls' first double-digit win season in school history.
Taggart was hired as the Ducks' next head coach on December 7, 2016, replacing Mark Helfrich, who was fired.
After exhausting military-style workouts, three Oregon football players were hospitalized in January 2017. Multiple sources characterized the workouts to the Oregonian as "akin to military basic drill," with one of them containing up to an hour of continuous push-ups and downs. Tagt personally visited the injured and hospitalized players to wish them a speedy recovery. In the statement, Taggart said, "I have spent time with the three young men involved in the recent days, and I have been in constant contact with their families, giving my sincere apology." "I hold myself accountable for all of our football-related operations and the wellbeing of our students" as the head football coach. I have discussed the importance of our strength and conditioning employees, and I would wholeheartedly support the University's policies today. I want to thank our medical staff and doctors for the care of all of our young men, as well as alumni and supporters.
The recruiting at Oregon by Taggart brought attention to the fact that there are no African American head coaches in major college football (14 out of 128 schools) (14 out of 128 schools). The selection came many years after Oregon passed House Bill 3118, which mandates state-funded schools to interview qualified minority candidates for top coaching and athletic administration positions.
With Taggart at the helm, Oregon went 7-5 overall and 4-5 in the Pac-12 in 2017. The Ducks defeated Nebraska, Arizona, and Oregon State, which is a rival. UCLA, Stanford, Washington State, Washington state, beat them on Tuesday and Washington state lost by 38-3, with a 38-3 loss. In addition, the Ducks lost the Las Vegas Bowl to Boise State on December 16, with Mario Cristobal at the helm after Taggart accepted the position at Florida State.
Taggart accepted the head coaching position at Florida State on December 5, 2017, replacing Jimbo Fisher. The Seminoles lost their first losing season on the track since 1976, Bobby Bowden's first year, in his first season. They were not allowed to bowl for the first time since the 1981 season, snapping the longest active bowl appearance streak in FBS. Fans of Florida State were not used to waiting home for bowl season, and there were numerous calls for Taggart's dismissal. However, school president John Thrasher and athletic director Dave Coburn expressed awe in Taggart. According to a story in Bleacher Report, Florida State dropped out in 2018 due in large part to cultural issues arising from Fisher's tenure. Taggart, in particular, was stunned by the football team's casual approach to academics. When he arrived, Florida State had the worst Academic Progress Rate in FBS and was on the brink of an automatic bowl ban, which made it even more difficult to restart the program.
Taggart was fired during mid-season in November 2019, following a 4-5 start to the 2019 season. Florida State was still owed $1.3 million to Taggart for his demotion of Taggart, which included around $18 million to Taggart after the termination and an additional $1.3 million to Oregon for recruiting Taggart away from 2016) until Taggart was released.
FAU announced the recruitment of Taggart as the school's next head coach on December 11, 2019, two days after Lane Kiffin resigned from FAU and accepted the head coach position at Ole Miss. If Taggart leaves before Dec. 1, 2022, the 5-year contract would cost Taggart $750,000 per year with a $3 million buyout.