Florida Atlantic hires ex-Florida State coach Willie Taggart to replace Lane Kiffin
Former Florida State coach Willie Taggart wasn’t without a job for long.
Taggart was fired as Florida State’s coach on Nov. 3. Wednesday, he confirmed to Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel that he would be replacing Lane Kiffin at Florida Atlantic.
Willie Taggart just confirmed to @yahoosports that he’s going to be the next coach at Florida Atlantic.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 11, 2019
Kiffin was formally introduced Monday at Ole Miss after the school officially hired him following FAU’s Conference USA title game win over UAB.
Taggart’s FSU tenure did not go well. The team was 5-7 in his first year and missed a bowl game for the first time since 1981. The team was 4-5 when he was fired and replaced on an interim basis by assistant coach Odell Haggins.
Florida State officially hired Mike Norvell as the team’s new coach on Sunday.
Taggart has 56-62 career record
Haggins was the interim coach before Taggart took over at FSU following the departure of Jimbo Fisher to Texas A&M. Taggart came to Tallahassee after spending a season at Oregon where the Ducks went 7-5 in the first year after Mark Helfrich’s firing.
Taggart left Oregon after a year for the chance to come back to Florida where he had spent the previous four seasons as South Florida’s coach. Taggart was 24-25 in his four years at USF but the team improved its win total by at least two games in each of Taggart’s final three years at the school and went 10-2 in 2016.
Before becoming the head coach at USF, Taggart was the coach at Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers were 2-10 in his first season before going 7-5 in the next two seasons and going to the Little Caesars Bowl in 2012. It was the school’s first bowl appearance.
FAU’s hiring of Taggart comes on the heels of the school’s successful gamble on Kiffin. The former Tennessee and USC coach spent three seasons on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama before getting another chance at a head coaching job in Boca Raton.
The Owls were 3-9 in each of the three seasons before Kiffin took over and won 11 games in his first season before hitting the 10-win mark this season. It’s blatantly obvious that the program is in a better spot than it was in 2016. And Taggart now has a chance to capitalize on that strengthened foundation instead of taking over a team in need of drastic improvement.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports
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