Willie Taggart leaves his alma mater Western Kentucky to take the job at South Florida
Willie Taggart played at Western Kentucky, and came back to the school to be its head coach. It must have been bittersweet when he took the job to coach South Florida.
Western Kentucky probably has conflicted feelings as well. Happy for Taggart, who led the Hilltoppers to their first-ever bowl berth this season, but disappointed to lose him. Taggart was perfect to build Western Kentucky's program, which joined the FBS in 2009, to a competitive team in the Sun Belt. This season he called a trick play on a two-point conversion in overtime to beat Kentucky, then gave WKU fans a quote for the ages when he said, "I will tell you this: The WKU red is the new blue in Kentucky now, baby! How 'bout that?"
[More NCAA football: Tommy Tuberville to leave Texas Tech for Cincinnati]
But, South Florida is close to home for Taggart, as well.
Taggart is from Bradenton, which is in the Tampa area, and he is a great fit for South Florida. The Bulls fired Skip Holtz after another disappointing season, so Taggart has some work to do. But he knows the area and has built up a program before.
Taggart should do fine at South Florida, which would only make Western Kentucky miss him more.
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