Willie Taggart is a former American football player who quit playing for the coaching position and excelled in it; he is currently one of the top college coaches in the United States. Before agreeing to replace Jimbo Fisher in 2017 as Florida State head coach. Taggart coached Western Kentucky (2009-2012), South Florida (2013-2016) and Oregon (2017) breaking records as the first black football coach on each of those teams.
Taking over Fisher’s job in December 2017, Willie Taggart became Florida State’s first permanent black football coach. Here’s everything you need to know about the FSU coach, including his biography and fame.
Who is Willie Taggart?
The FSU coach was born in Bradenton, Florida on August 27, 1976 to Gloria James and John Taggart. Willie is not an only child; he has three sisters – Cynthia Taggart, Eddie Butler and Charlene Taggart.
He recalls how his father did all sorts of jobs from picking oranges, tomatoes and watermelons to working at Darlene Shells for about three decades to support his family. Although John is no more, he remains Willie’s role model. John Taggart died in August 2017 after battling cancer, he was 70.
All about the FSU coach
Family
Willie Taggart has been married to Taneshia Taggart since 1999 and they have three children: a daughter (Morgan) and two sons (Willie Jr. and Jackson).
Carrier start
Willie Taggart attended Bradenton Manatee HighSchool in Florida where he started playing American football. As a junior, Willie helped his school’s football team win the state title and go 26-4. He also recorded over 3,000 passing yards and 975 rushing yards. As a senior, Taggart led the Hurricanes to the 5A Championship Game and earned an all-conference pick. He is also a recipient of an all-state first team.
After high school, he played college football in Western Kentucky as a quarterback and became the third WKU player to start for four years in the past fifty years and one of only four players to have their jersey retired. Willie Taggart is a two-time Walter Payton Award finalist. He was an American as a senior and won the Independents I-AA Offensive Player of the Year award in 1998.
Coaching career
After graduating in 1998, Willie Taggart remained at WKU as an assistant, serving as co-offensive coordinator for Jack Harbaugh during the 2002 Division I-AA National Championship. Harbaugh became the coached the Stanford Cardinal football team in 2006 and still hired Taggart as the semi-finalists coach. Willie remained at Stanford for two seasons.
In 2010, Taggart returned to his alma mater, Western Kentucky, not as a player or assistant this time, but as head coach of Hilltoppers. In his first year as the team’s coach, he snapped a 26-game losing streak and finished the season with a 2–10 record.
The following year, Willie Taggart led the Record Bowl-eligible Hilltoppers 7–5 despite not being invited to the bowl; in 2012, they were invited to bowl after achieving a bowl-eligible record like the previous year. Unfortunately, Taggart wasn’t there to coach them, as he had already accepted the head coaching position in South Florida.
In his first position as Bulls head coach, the team finished with a 4–8 record. The Bulls closed the 2015 season with an 8–5 record to gain bowl eligibility for the first time in five years; however, they lost to WKU in the Bowl. The following year, the team went 10–2 to win a share of the AAC East division—it was their first double-digit number in college football history.
In December 2016, Taggart replaced Mark Helfrich as Oregon’s new head coach. His hiring brought attention to the number of African-American entities as head coaches in college football nationwide. In less than a year with the Ducks, they beat Arizona, Nebraska and rival Oregon State, but were beaten by Washington, Stanford and UCLA. The team lost the bowl to Boise State after Taggart left to take up his position as head coach of Florida.
His height and weight
The Florida native stands at a height of 6 ft 2 and weighs 170 pounds. Growing up, Taggart was skinny, his head was big, and he was nicknamed “the Skull,” a name that followed him through high school.