Florida State Fires Head Football Coach Willie Taggart, Odell Haggins Named Interim Head Coach
By Chris Bonanno // November 3, 2019
Taggart had a 9-12 record in less than two seasons at Florida State
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Florida State has fired head football coach Willie Taggart in his second season, the school said on Sunday.
““I think very highly of Coach Taggart and wish him well, but in the interest of the university we had no choice but to make a change,” said Florida State University President John Thrasher. “We will support our student-athletes in every way and do all we can to return to the winning tradition that is Seminole football.”
Odell Haggins, who is currently serving in his 26th year on the staff, will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
He also served in an interim capacity in 2017 for Florida State’s final two games of the season after then-coach Jimbo Fisher left the program for Texas A&M.
Taggart, in just his second year at the helm of Florida State’s football program, finishes his tenure at the school with a 9-12 record.
Florida State fell to rival Miami 27-10 on Saturday at Doak Campbell Stadium. The Seminoles dropped to 4-5 on the year and are in danger of missing a bowl game for the second-straight season after finishing 5-7 in 2018.
Willie Taggart’s buying from FSU comes out to around $17 million, will be second largest buyout in college history. Charlie Weis was paid $18.9 million to leave Notre Dame.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) November 3, 2019
The buyout for Willie Taggart is more than $17 million. FSU will end up paying more than $20 million to buy out the whole staff at the end of the year. One of the bigger buyouts in college football history.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 3, 2019
$2,515,000: What Florida State paid Willie Taggart per game. Total cost, including Oregon & USF buyout, will come to about $30,180,000.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) November 3, 2019
Following the loss, Taggart stated that he believed the program was making progress.
“Well, I think if you just look at ‐ which you all do ‐ look at statistics, you’ll see some improvement from where we were last year in a lot of areas. Again, at the end of the day when you talk about the fans, it all comes down to winning. We got to find a way to win.”
You can read the entire release from Florida State here:
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