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The Rise of Willie Taggart explained

gatorman001

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2003
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Yeah Neutral I’m a A-hole…….I express opinions about topics and you apparently are often offended by them. I stumbled on this today not realizing this guy’s sentiments on Taggart the football coach……not the football player, echo mine exactly! I’ll go one step further on the whole Kinnan thing having spent more time in Bradenton in the last few months and realizing what has happen to the county on the whole. I believe the whole fiasco with Kinnan ultimately retiring, was a situation where county money has moved out to east Bradenton in and around the interstate…..and a certain sentiment evolved that the newly created schools football programs, were destined to play 2nd fiddle to Manatee as long as Kinnan was at Manatee HS. I say that only because of how situations that have subsequently developed with certain HS football programs out around the interstate and how the County school board responded to them, led me to believe the fix was in to rid the county of Joe Kinnan……..but all of that leads to the current situation at FSU with Taggart as the HBC…….this guy lays the rise of Taggart out better than I could have ever explained it


By Chris Anderson Posted at 2:06 PM Updated at 4:22 PM In 2014, the Manatee County school district forced Joe Kinnan into retirement. Kinnan then bailed out Willie Taggart, his former player, at USF, which fooled Florida State into thinking Taggart was a capable coach. The mistake could cost FSU millions. Florida State did not play in a bowl game last season for the first time in 36 years, which means the Seminoles — under the leadership of Willie Taggart, the Pride of Palmetto — had nine months to prepare for mighty Boise State in the 2019 season opener. That’s not all. The ’Noles led in the game by 18 points, were facing a quarterback four months removed from his high school prom, had the stifling Florida heat on their side against a team from Idaho, and an act of God (Hurricane Dorian) moved the game from Jacksonville to their home field in Tallahassee. All of that in their favor, and they still couldn’t win.

That’s how bad of a coach Taggart is. But this, of course, is no longer a secret. The Palmetto native is a 52-58 career coach who has never won a conference championship or a bowl game and is somehow paid millions for such incompetence. Last year — his first at FSU — he guided the ’Noles to a 5-7 record, their first losing season in more than 40 years. 40! OK, FSU fans, know who you can blame for this fiasco of a hiring? That’s right. Former superintendent Rick Mills and the Manatee County school district. I wrote the same thing three years ago, but it’s even more serious now as the action they took in 2014 by firing Hall of Fame high school coach Joe Kinnan has had a domino effect that may cost Florida State University $17 million before it’s all over.

Here’s the logic: In 2013 Taggart was coaching USF and running a prehistoric offense that was ranked 122nd in the country. The Bulls finished the season 2- 10. Taggart was close to being fired the next season before he did the smartest thing possible. He brought in Kinnan — his old high school coach at Manatee High and one of the best football minds on any level — to install a new offense and save his job. Kinnan, thanks to being forced into retirement by the Manatee school district in 2014, just so happened to be available. In 2015, Kinnan turned the offense into the second best in the nation, and USF finished the season with a school-record 11 wins. All of a sudden Taggart is a genius. Fooled into thinking Taggart could coach, Oregon lured him away for $16 million, two cars and a country club membership. Taggart — who did not bring Kinnan to Oregon — did what he always does. He coached the Ducks to an underwhelming 7-5 season and then packed up the tent for more money in Tallahassee.

To wit: In the two seasons Kinnan was with Taggart at USF, the Bulls were 18- 7. Those 18 wins represent 35 percent of Taggart’s career total of 52. Taggart’s record at Oregon and FSU over the last two seasons — without Kinnan — was 12-12.So where do Mills and the Manatee County school district fit into all of this, you may ask, and why should they be blamed for Taggart? Well, Kinnan was one of the best high school football coaches in state history, maybe the best. In 29 years at Manatee High he won 290 games and five state titles. He was also the school’s athletic director, and in 2014 Mills suspended him for 10 days because of some transgressions in the baseball program. Essentially, Kinnan’s character was called into question, and he was personally crushed, taking a medical leave from coaching football that ultimately led to his retirement. Kinnan filed a lawsuit against Mills that is still pending. It’s a simple chain of events. Had Mills not suspended Kinnan, it’s likely he would still be coaching at Manatee High. He would not have been available to bail out Taggart at USF. Taggart would then not have been able to fool big-time colleges into thinking he could coach. Taggart’s offense at USF — largely Kinnan’s creation — is one big reason Oregon lured him away. FSU was next to buy into the myth, giving Taggart a six-year contract worth $30 million, easily making the Pride of Palmetto the highest-paid state employee in Florida. He rewarded them with the worst season at FSU in over 40 years — 40! — and then kicked the 2019 season off by blowing an 18- point lead at home against Boise State. Here’s the kicker: If FSU ever fires Taggart — and it’s still a mystery as to why it hasn’t happened already — the PoP is set to receive 85 percent of the compensation he is owed. In other words, if Taggart is fired after this season, FSU will owe him $17 million, money that can be traced all the way back to the Manatee County school district.

Go Canes Go!
 
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Yeah Neutral I’m a A-hole… I express opinions about topics and you apparently are often offended by them. I stumbled on this today not realizing this guy’s sentiments on Taggart the football coach…
1. I'm rarely offended by any of your posts. More often than not, I'm mildy amused.
2. What in the world do I have to do with a discussion on Willie Taggart? Color me perplexed.
3. If you're an "A-hole", there has never been one word of mention about this from me.

Read further.

You hold yourself out to be Manatee High School football's All-Time greatest fan, which is cool wiff Nu'Trelle. He don't have any clue one way or the other. Yet the vast majority of other Manatee supporters on here not only disagree with your opinions, but try their best to refute and disparage whatever you have to say.

There's a lot of threads on here that concern Manatee. Once a thread about Manatee deteriorates to you arguing with your critics, Nu'Trelle is out.

Hope this clarifies things. Carry on.
 
If only you could explain something with facts and not opinion.

Taggart's record is no indication on this coaching ability. Sorry this black man didn't get to coach his first game for FSU like Jimbo. Or Get spoon fed Clemson like Dabo. I'd love to see Jimbo Bob's or Dabo's record taking over a losing Western Kentucky or South Florida, hell even a damaged Oregon program.

Oregon, Winning record after going 2-10 before he got there. Do your homework he's fixed everyone's mistakes and will fix them at FSU. If the talent there was so world beater, he wouldn't be there. He might be at Texas A't&M. Jimbo is all about the Star rating, Texas A&M will soon get got as well.

For you to sit there and act like Kinnan was the only reason USF won is funny to me. What about the first half of that season? Do you know the real reason the offense changed? Or are you and your conspiracy friends going to conjure up a story for us?

You don't know what you're talking about and better stay in a fans place.

There is a reason the other board takes the cake. Sense and the common type is of the essence.
 
Note to gatorman001 re: Chris Anderson's comments (now that I've read them).

While some might accept this man's remark's as evidentiary, the more prudent of us would probably characterize Anderson's stream of logic (i.e., that Manatee County's firing of Kinnan directly cost FSU 17 million) as pure conjecture.

As for Kinnan and his legacy. The best predictor of acceptance or rejection of the Joe Kinnan era in and around Manatee County would undoubtedly have been the price that an individual placed on winning high school football games.

Want to win at ANY cost? Then Joe was probably considered by many to be the second coming of Christ.

Want 100 percent assurance that your program could pass a no-holds-barred, unannounced inspection at any time during the full light of day? Then you'd probably want to put the school on full lock-down until you could figure out to get Joe out of state.

Guys like Joe do whatever THEY THINK they need to do to win. If a rule gets in the way, it probably gets broken and, hopefully, forgotten. But generally after the passage of time, that approach has a way of biting the perpetrator on the ass ... and that's exactly what happened to Kinnan.

Yes, the district terminated him over irregularities in the baseball program, but didn't federal authorities finally figure out that the fastest way to rid America's streets of Al Capone was to charge him with income tax evasion?
 
Fascinating stuff here, Now as one of those people who the National Enquire used to market to; SK personally learned something from gatorman's post. And SK feels sorry for people who don't get to read this "And they're off!" stuff on the reg.

The only thing SK judged Coach Kinnan on (before he got in trouble for the cover up), came after what the CH 7 sports broadcaster described as,

"The best football game, at any level, I've ever seen"...

...and miserable old Joe refused to shake the Tarpons Coach's hands after we beat them for the first time since the 1949. Good that will be his last memory of the Tarpons (We should have beat them the year before, save for a Brion Carnes Hail Mary - the one gatorman and I have discussed a few dozen times).
 
"The best football game, at any level, I've ever seen"... and miserable old Joe refused to shake the Tarpons Coach's hands after we beat them for the first time since the 1949.
That story about Kinnan always caused Nu'Trelle to cringe and start thinkin about Sam Sirianni ... a guy who could trade punches with you for 48 minutes, then come meet you at the fifty with not only a smile, but maybe an arm over your shoulder and a "Good job."

And Coach Sam was that way, win, lose or draw from the day I first met him until the die he died. It's a thing called "sportsmanship" and it's the main reason kids benefit when they make the sacrifices required to participate in organized competition.
 
If they lose to ULM today, I don't see how he survives the evening. They also need to get rid of the soft President and soft A.D.
 
That story about Kinnan always caused Nu'Trelle to cringe and start thinkin about Sam Sirianni ... a guy who could trade punches with you for 48 minutes, then come meet you at the fifty with not only a smile, but maybe an arm over your shoulder and a "Good job."

And Coach Sam was that way, win, lose or draw from the day I first met him until the die he died. It's a thing called "sportsmanship" and it's the main reason kids benefit when they make the sacrifices required to participate in organized competition.

I never miss a chance to shake Coach Sam and his staff's hand and share a few words after a game - win or lose.

But that's been happening since my oldest played and the week Sam Sr died, one of our seniors asked they prayed together - the teams have been doing that ever since. Class act Sam Sirianni Jr.; same for the Tarps' Binky Waldrop - and they played right over each other in high school representing their teams.

Neut, you me and Wave have watched something here that few around the state get to - the game played with the competitiveness AND sportsmanship it deserves.

I learned the game that way at Charlotte from a coach who went on to be a two-time NCAA Coach of the Year, and got 11 of us into colleges (mostly small). One was a Gator All-American who went on to play in three Super Bowls.
 
Sorry this black man didn't get to coach his first game for FSU like Jimbo. Or Get spoon fed Clemson like Dabo. I'd love to see Jimbo Bob's or Dabo's record taking over a losing Western Kentucky or South Florida, hell even a damaged Oregon program.

FSU was 7-6 before Jimbo became head coach.

FSU was 7-6 before Taggart became head coach.

Clemson was 3-3 when Dabo became head coach.

If Jimbo or Dabo had taken over Western Kentucky I bet they wouldn't have finished with a losing record like Taggart did.
 
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Derrick Brooks for President (FSU). He will fix their wagon. :)
Hell no... part of our problem on defense is his sorry ass son playing a position he has no business playing.....
 
I remember Taggart’s press conference when he got the USF job. He went on a rant about how “he was a winner.” I knew from that press conference that team building would not be his strength.
 
SG, UCF is all aone at the top of this state - I hope they go undefeated regular season and put pressure on the committee, would love to see them get a real shot.
 
Yes - FSU was 7-6 before Jimbo took over - but Jimbo recruited almost all of the offensive players that he then coached... and FSU fans were ready to fire him after a dismal 8-4 (9-4 with the bowl win) in 2011 (which led to the 2013 Natty)....

FSU was 7-6 before Taggart, but was 5-6 before Odell and had to reschedule a game to get Bowl eligible...

please spare me with the Miami analysis... you guys hired Al Golden.
 
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A Mr HiSchool sighting and Wavebb always lurking close by.................how about that!

Go Canes Go!
 
Yes - FSU was 7-6 before Jimbo took over - but Jimbo recruited almost all of the offensive players that he then coached... and FSU fans were ready to fire him after a dismal 8-4 (9-4 with the bowl win) in 2011 (which led to the 2013 Natty)....

FSU was 7-6 before Taggart, but was 5-6 before Odell and had to reschedule a game to get Bowl eligible...

please spare me with the Miami analysis... you guys hired Al Golden.

Willie Taggart and Al Golden have something in common.

They suck almost as much as you do.
 
FSU was 7-6 before Jimbo became head coach.

FSU was 7-6 before Taggart became head coach.


Clemson was 3-3 when Dabo became head coach.

If Jimbo or Dabo had taken over Western Kentucky I bet they wouldn't have finished with a losing record like Taggart did.

Did you need to say it twice to get people to actually somewhat care about your garbage locker room playboy?
 
If only you could explain something with facts and not opinion.

Taggart's record is no indication on this coaching ability. Sorry this black man didn't get to coach his first game for FSU like Jimbo. Or Get spoon fed Clemson like Dabo. I'd love to see Jimbo Bob's or Dabo's record taking over a losing Western Kentucky or South Florida, hell even a damaged Oregon program.

Oregon, Winning record after going 2-10 before he got there. Do your homework he's fixed everyone's mistakes and will fix them at FSU. If the talent there was so world beater, he wouldn't be there. He might be at Texas A't&M. Jimbo is all about the Star rating, Texas A&M will soon get got as well.

For you to sit there and act like Kinnan was the only reason USF won is funny to me. What about the first half of that season? Do you know the real reason the offense changed? Or are you and your conspiracy friends going to conjure up a story for us?

You don't know what you're talking about and better stay in a fans place.

There is a reason the other board takes the cake. Sense and the common type is of the essence.
This didn’t age well, hoss
 
Yeah, Naughts08 certainly went about establishing himself has a individual that lacked any kind of credible insight, back when Lakeland was on the consecutive win roll.......it was this video for which he and LHSNaughts was made for
 
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