Tag Archives: Florida State

Sports news

Coach’s firing is an attention-getter

Photo by Chris Seward/AP/REX/Shutterstock 

Under normal circumstances, I don’t usually get worked up when a college football head coach gets fired. I am not “worked up” over this one, but it did get my attention when I read about it.

Florida State University kicked head coach Willie Taggart out of his job today. The Seminoles lost to Miami this weekend. Taggart was 9-12 during his season and a half at FSU.

Why the interest in this one? Well, Taggart was head coach for all of a single season at the University of Oregon. He went to Eugene after coaching at the University of South Florida. The Ducks had collapsed after reaching the near-zenith of college football greatness. So they hired Taggart looking for a return of gridiron magic.

Taggart bailed on the Ducks. He went back “home” to Florida to coach at FSU. It didn’t work out.

I am not going to gloat over this. I am sad that Taggart couldn’t turn the corner in Tallahassee. He seems like a good man.

However, he angered his players at Oregon when he bailed on them. The fans got angry, too. I happen to one of the fans.

Oh, the good news for the Ducks? They are playing great football again under head coach Mario Cristobal, who joined the Ducks coaching staff when UO hired Taggart in 2017.

There’s a chance the Ducks could play once again for the national championship. They have to win the rest of their games and something has to happen to one or more of the top four teams in the national college football poll.

So … karma ain’t so bad after all.

Sports news

Good job, Boise State!

I am not a big Boise State Broncos football fan, but this result from Tallahassee, Fla., thrills me in a way I didn’t quite expect.

Boise State was supposed to play Florida State University in a non-league game in Jacksonville, Fla., an ostensibly “neutral” site. Hurricane Dorian changed it. They moved the game farther west to Tallahassee, where FSU is located and where the Seminoles play their home games.

So, what do you suppose happened Friday night? Boise State won the game 36-31 over Florida State. 

It’s a big deal, man. You know?

It was tough enough on the Broncos to have to travel across the country to play Florida State, not that anyone was complaining — I am sure — about the travel. Then to move the game from a neutral site to the other side’s home field might have seemed like a case of — and pardon the intended pun — moving the goalposts.

Then there’s this matter.

I am not inclined to root against coaches, but I am glad that FSU head coach Willie Taggart suffered this loss. Why? Because Taggart took a job three years ago to rescue the University of Oregon football program after it fell precipitously from elite status to the dregs of the Pac-12.

What does Taggart do? He leads the Ducks for a single season, posts a decent won-lost record — and then bails for the vacant Florida State head coaching job!

I am an avid Ducks fan. I want the Ducks to return to elite status. They might be on the road to that return. As for Taggart, this Ducks fan isn’t shedding a single tear for him.

Too bad, coach. Suck it up and get ready for the next foe.

Sports news

Still waiting on explanation for Seminoles' departure

The media have reported — as they should — on the crummy conduct of three University of Oregon football players who chanted “No means no” while celebrating the Ducks’ win over Florida State in the semifinal game of the college football playoffs.

The chant was aimed at FSU quarterback Jameis Winston’s alleged sexual assault a couple of years ago.

Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich has said the players will be disciplined for their demonstration.

Good.

Now … what about the Seminoles’ conduct at the end of the game? Three-fourths of the team left the field before the final gun sounded to end the game, which ended with a 59-20 score in favor of the Ducks.

It’s customary for the coaches to meet at midfield, hug each other’s neck, shake hands and congratulate each other for a great game. The players do it, too.

It didn’t happen that way New Year’s Night in the Rose Bowl. The Ducks took congrats from a few FSU players. One of them was Jameis Winston, the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner, who hugged the 2014 Heisman winner, Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. The two young men exchanged kind words.

Not a word — that I’ve heard, at least — has come from FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher about the conduct of his players.

Isn’t there a code of sportsmanship and decorum that’s supposed to be followed here? Has that code been lost on players who got walloped on the field, but who then haven’t learned how to take their defeat like grown men?

And what kind of leadership are they getting when their head coach doesn’t own up to his players’ disrespectful behavior?