Tag Archive: Willie Taggert

Florida State Fires Willie Taggart

When Willie Taggart was interviewed for the Oregon job in December 2016 it was our opinion that Taggart got that interview because of a law that the state of Oregon has on its books, House Bill 3118, “which requires state-funded schools to interview qualified minority candidates for top coaching and athletic administration positions,” because it was our opinion that Taggart was a Terrible Fit for the Oregon job precisely because except for a few years at Stanford under Jim Harbaugh he had spent his entire playing and coaching career in the Southern United States.

To our amazement Willie Taggart got the Oregon job which made no Damn sense to anyone at Coaches Hot Seat in December 2016 and makes no Damn sense to anyone here today because it was such a “strange” fit which brings us to Florida State hiring Willie Taggart after he had only been at Oregon for one year.

There’s a good case to be made that if Taggart had just stayed at South Florida for another season and had another 9+ win year he would have been an obvious choice for Florida State, and maybe things would have been different than they were the last two seasons at FSU which in our opinion from what we have been told by FSU-alum friends that live in the State of Florida has been…

Nothing Short of a Complete Disaster from Day One under Taggart

What was most alarming to us watching Florida State from afar and not seeing things that our friends in Florida were seeing and telling us from first-hand observations was the way that FSU was playing under Taggart which was often…

Undisciplined
Unprepared
Un-Focused
Un-Coached
Un-Caring
Un-Damn-Everything

….which was really the case against Miami…..Miami for God’s sake…which came into Doak Campbell Stadium to play an FSU team that you think would be fired-up to play Miami and yet….

The Florida State players looked like they could have cared the Hell less about playing Miami!

What is that about exactly?

Why in Willie Taggart’s 21st game at Florida State do his players come out in their home stadium and look like….

They could have cared the Hell less about playing Miami?

It is THE MAIN JOB of a Head Football Coach to make sure his football team is ready to play on gameday and in game-after-game under Willie Taggart FSU has looked…

Undisciplined
Unprepared
Un-Focused
Un-Coached
Un-Caring
Un-Damn-Everything

….and there really was no way for Florida State to allow that to continue because the school could hire almost any Random FSU Fan off the street and for God’s Sake they are going to have the Florida State team fired up to play Miami!

Geez…if a Florida State team is NOT fired-up to play Miami that is team with a Head Coach that MUST be fired and thus the FSU President was right in saying that Florida State University had…

“No choice”

….but to fire Willie Taggart….and rightfully fired Willie was.

Let’s bring out the Late Great Johnny Cash to show these Hot Seat Coaches what this whole thing is all about!

Thank You Johnny!

Post Week 10 Coaches Hot Seat Rankings

1.  Clay Helton, USC – When you are the Head Football Coach at USC and in your 58th game coaching the Trojans and your ass gets beat by Oregon or anyone else by the score of…

56 – 24

…you have lost any and all benefit of the doubt and now there is no doubt Clay Helton will be fired at USC and now it’s only a matter of the Where and When that Clay will be fired.

What’s so interesting is that Clay Helton being the son of Kim Helton who played football at Florida, was the offensive coordinator at Miami under Howard Schnellenberer, and was the Head Coach at Houston for 7 seasons is that Clay doesn’t seem to fully grasp all the things that goes into being a Head Coach with so much stuff slipping through the cracks that aren’t getting addressed at USC which is precisely the reason Helton is now about to lose one of the most coveted jobs in college football.

Steve Sarksian and Lane Kiffin also made similar mistakes not completely understanding what goes into being the Head Football Coach at a place like USC and if there is one thing that USC must do with its next Head Coach is make sure they simply >

Know What The Hell They Are Doing!

We could write a book on the incredible number of things that coaches like Nick Saban at Alabama and Urban Meyer when he was at Ohio State would make sure are being covered and being taken care of which when you boil it down is just a long list of Must Do Items that is the basis for anyone running any organization on Earth successfully. At places like Alabama, Ohio State, and USC in order to be successful and live up to the expectations of the fan bases at those schools, if you are not taking care of all the Big Things + Tiny Details then eventually it will catch-up to you and what all this basically comes down to is this quote from the Late Great Paul “Bear” Bryant >

“If you want to coach you have three rules to follow to win. One, surround yourself with people who can’t live without football. I’ve had a lot of them. Two, be able to recognize winners. They come in all forms. And, three, have a plan for everything. A plan for practice, a plan for the game. A plan for being ahead, and a plan for being behind 20-0 at half, with your quarterback hurt and the phones dead, with it raining cats and dogs and no rain gear because the equipment man left it at home.”

Clay Helton certainly has worked hard and done what he thinks is best for USC to win football games but in the end >

It’s the many Big Things and Tiny Details that Clay Helton didn’t take care of that will be his undoing and what Helluva Lesson Helton’s time at USC is for coaches and Helton himself who can certainly learn from his mistakes and get another head coaching job in the future, and that is the main reason why Helton needs to keep working hard and try like Hell to get his USC team to win these last 3 games against…

At Arizona State
At California
UCLA

On a related note to what is written above we have a member of Coaches Hot Seat who played football at Alabama for Paul “Bear” Bryant in the 1970s and in the Spring Term after his senior and last season as a player at Alabama he went by Coach Bryant’s office to get some advice on a career issue. In telling this story the former Alabama player relates an amazing scene but one thing he says he will always remember is when he was standing by Coach Bryant’s desk just before he left he noticed Bryant had a 8/12 x 11 notepad that had a long list of things that Bryant was clearly working on with “checks” by the things that had been completed. Coach Bryant was working off a To Do List just like all of us do that are running things and in that To Do List is what made Alabama Football Get-Up-And-Go under Bear and makes it goes under Nick Saban and in the end it really is about…

“Taking Care of the Little Things…and a Little Something Extra!”

Good Luck to you Clay!

2.  Chad Morris, Arkansas – We will forever wonder how someone could like Chad Morris have a career win/loss record as a Head Coach of…

14 – 22

…in 3 seasons at SMU get a Head Coaching job at an SEC school like Arkansas and not surprising to us or anyone else with a 2+ IQ Morris has struggled at Arkansas because…

Arkansas is a Helluva Lot Tougher Job than SMU!

In two seasons at Arkansas Chad Morris has now with the loss to Mississippi State posted records of…

Overall:  4 – 17

SEC:  0 – 14

….and to say that is BAD and that Arkansas looked no better in Morris 21st game at the school than they looked in his 1st game coaching Arkansas is an understatement for the ages…and that’s a Helluva Problem for the folks making the hiring and firing decisions in Fayetteville….a Helluva Big Problem!

Now at 2 – 7 on the season Arkansas has left in 2019 games against…

Western Kentucky
At LSU
Missouri

….and if Arkansas plays like they did against Mississippi State the rest of the year the Hogs will not win another game!

If Arkansas does fire Chad Morris we would recommend ONE thing to the folks in Fayetteville >

Hire A Football Coach with a WINNING RECORD!

Is that simple enough? Good!

3.  Mike Bloomgren, Rice – Mike Bloomgren has been the Head Coach at Rice for 2 seasons and he has posted records of…

Overall:  2 – 20  (.091%)

CUSA:  1 – 12  (.077%)

….and he replaced David Bailiff at Rice who posted records over 11 seasons of..

Overall:  57 – 80  (.416%)

CUSA:  40 – 48  (.455%)

….and the idea is that when you fire a Head Coach you should hire a New Head Coach that does better than the Fired Head Coach and that’s something that folks at Rice University don’t seem to understand which also seems to be the problem at lost of FBS schools these days!

4.  Scott Frost, Nebraska – When Mike Riley was still the Head Coach at Nebraska a buddy of ours who played for Frank Solich at Nebraska told us over lunch in Omaha that >

“They have forgotten how to win at Nebraska and it’s not going to be easy to turn that place around.”

Watching Nebraska play in 2019 it’s become our opinion that Scott Frost badly misunderstood what he was actually taking over at Nebraska and that Frost believed that through better coaching, conditioning program, and other things that Frost did at UCF and saw done at Oregon that the Huskers would by now have Nebraska back to winning football games.

After a loss to a really bad Purdue team on Saturday what has become clear to us is that the problems at Nebraska are primarily….

A Lack of Leadership and Motivational Issues

…and that Frost’s particular brand of coaching which isn’t really focused on Leadership and Motivation is just making things worse in Lincoln or at best just treading water. It’s also now our opinion that either Scott Frost will change his approach from…

“We are going to show everyone in America how tough Nebraska really is.”

….to Leading and Motivating the Nebraska Football Program or nothing is going to change for the better and a year from now Scott Frost will be well on his way to being fired at Nebraska.

Reality is Tom Osborne, Barry Switzer, Don James, Paul Bryant, Bud Wilkinson, Darrell Royal…name whatever great coach you can think of from the past…would have to change their coaching style to coach Today’s Players or they would be Failing Totally like Scott Frost is now Failing at Nebraska and either Frost will realize that soon or he is headed for the same ending the Bill Callahan, Bo Pelini, and Mike Riley found at Nebraska which is getting fired and told to pack-up your things…because you are DONE!

Mainly the problem right now at Nebraska is…

It’s Miserable As Hell to play football for the University of Nebraska Football Team precisely because the Head Coach is miserable as Hell and either Frost will get these kids Excited about playing football and having Fun playing football again….like the players were at UCF under Frost….or it’s Danger Ahead Scott Frost!

Scott Frost’s records at Nebraska are now….

Overall:  8 – 13

Big Ten:  5 – 10

…and the Huskers have left on their 2019 schedule games against…

Wisconsin
At Maryland
Iowa

Will Nebraska win another game in 2019?

Can this Huskers team even beat a really bad Maryland team on the road?

What will be the situation at Nebraska if the Huskers finish at….

5 – 7

OR

4 – 8

….heading into the 2020 season?

It will nothing short of a Complete Freaking Disaster with Scott Frost probably panicking and overreacting in an even worse way to what he sees as some kind of “weakness” with the Nebraska football team and players when in reality it’s…

A Fundamental Misunderstanding of The Problem with Nebraska Football!

5.  Joe Moorhead, Mississippi State – An untold story about the 2019 college football season is how many SEC teams are Average or Sub-Average compared to years past and look no further than the game between Mississippi State and Arkansas this past Saturday which saw two teams that can barely bust a grape facing off making one of the teams look like a decent football team in the Bulldogs when in reality…

Both the Bulldogs and Razorback are playing Sub-Average Football in 2019!

In two seasons at Mississippi State Head Coach Joe Moorhead now has records on the board of…

Overall:  12 – 10

SEC:  6 – 8

…and the 4 – 5 Bulldogs still have to play in 2019 games against…

Alabama
Abilene Christian
Ole Miss

No way MSU beats Alabama and they will surely beat Abilene Christian so guess what Mississippi State Football has come down to in Joe Moorhead’s second season in Starkville >

You gotta beat Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl to go to a bowl game!

Woo-Damn-Hoo!

Oh…in 9 seasons at Mississippi State and in his last 8 seasons Dan Mullen posted a .500+ record and took the Bulldogs to a bowl game…

Every. Damn. Season.

Our Expectations for Mississippi State Football are not unreasonably high…

7 or so wins a year will usually keep the Head Coach off the Hot Seat but that 2018 Bulldogs football team was LOADED and Moorhead only won 8 games and now in his second season MSU is sitting on a record of 4 – 5 and we cannot help but wonder >

Where in the Hell is this going because where it’s going now is….NOT GOOD!

6.  Barry Odom, Missouri – Trying to figure out what is going on Missouri is something for Sherlock Holmes because please now…

How do you go from losing to Wyoming to reeling off 5 straight wins over West Virginia, SE Missouri State, South Carolina, Troy, and Ole Miss…not exactly a killer’s row of course….to losing to Vanderbilt and Kentucky…not killer teams either to land on a record of…

5 – 3

…with games left against…

At Georgia
Florida
Tennessee
At Arkansas

We don’t know but we do know that Missouri has played only ONE team in 2019 with a record above .500…

Wyoming

…and they lost to the Cowboys and now they get to play….

2 teams with .500+ records = Georgia and Florida

2 teams with sub. 500 records = Tennessee and Arkansas

…and we recommend Barry Odom find a way to win at least 2 of his remaining 4 games if he wants to get his ass off the Hot Seat!

7.  Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern – Saying that there are Pompous Arrogant Ass Head Coaches on the FBS level in college football is like saying the Sun comes up in the East, but truly someone who in our opinion believes that his Precious Ass not only invented the game of football but also that he is God on Earth and spun-up the Moon, Stars, and Sun and everything else that we Pitiful Peons can see in the sky at night is truly…

Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald

…who is in our opinion one of the Top 10 Most Pompous Arrogant Ass Human Beings now alive on the planet….which has 7.53 Billion Folks on it just for facts sake!

Pat has done a nice job at Northwestern and even won the Big Ten Western Division in 2018 going 19 – 8 in the last two seasons coming into 2019 so mainly we have Pat Fitzgerald on the Hot Seat because…

Northwestern is now 1 – 7 on the season

AND

Pat Fitzgerald is one of the Most Pompous Arrogant Asses on the Earth and we believe that when Pompous Arrogant Asses FAIL it makes the world a better place and someone that doesn’t go around acting like a Total Ass all the time gets their wings!

Northwestern at 1 – 7 has games in 2019 left against…

Purdue
UMass
Minnesota
At Illinois

…and since we could get together a Powder Puff team from Sonoma State University that could whip Purdue and UMass the Wildcats got a chance to win a couple of games in the next two weeks but can Northwestern beat Minnesota and/or Illinois?

Nope….not in our humble opinion!

On a related note a bunch of us at Coaches Hot Seat got to see Northwestern play at Stanford to open the season and our only comment on that game which saw the Wildcats score 7 points is that…

We have seen Pee Wee Football Teams with more sophisticated, organized, and efficient offenses than the Northwestern offense that we saw play on The Farm on August 31!

Here’s to Northwestern losing their last 4 games and Pat Fitzgerald being elevated to the #1 Hot Seat so he can be there all offseason!

Cheers!

8.  Dana Holgorsen, Houston – We are not quite sure what big Houston booster Tilman Fertita thought he was getting with Dana Holgorsen as the head coach of the Houston football program but we are betting it wasn’t a record of…

3 – 6

…9 games into Dana’s first season on the job with games still left against…

Memphis
At Tulsa
Navy

With those games left there’s a very good chance that Houston will not go to a bowl game in 2019 and that would be a significant downgrade for the Cougars football program which has only missed a bowl game in…

2 of the last 15 seasons

…and if we remember right everyone was told that…

Dana Holgorsen was significant upgrade on the last Houston Head Coach Major Applewhite who in 2 seasons on the job…

Took Houston to 2 Bowl Games

…posting 7 – 5 and 8 – 5 records!

Dana Holgorsen is a decent football coach but he’s also a Pompous Arrogant Ass Jerk and if he fails at Houston it will not matter to us at all but we are betting it will matter to Tilman Fertita who next time around should hire someone….

Can Coach the Game of Football and Isn’t a Pompous Arrogant Ass Jerk!

9.  Mark Dantonio, Michigan State – The Spartans had a bye in Week 10 as they sit on a record of 4 – 4 with games left against…

Illinois
At Michigan
At Rutgers
Maryland

…and a win in this Illinois game would be BIG since Rutgers and Maryland are Total Dumpster Fires and probable wins for Michigan State and if there is something that Mark Dantonio needs it is it more than….

6 Wins in 2019

….because just 6 Wins when 5 of those wins would be over FBS teams with sub .500 records is not something that would inspire confidence among fans of Michigan State football nor anyone else with a Lick of Common Sense!

10.  Kevin Sumlin, Arizona – We are not quite sure how Kevin Sumlin got Arizona to a point where in his 21st game at the school that they would lose at home to a 4 – 4 Oregon State team by the score of…

56 – 38

….which was Arizona’s 4th straight loss to drop the team to 4 – 5 on the season with games left against…

At Oregon
Utah
At Arizona State

Got it looks like Arizona is going to finish at 4 – 8 in 2019 after going 5 – 7 in Sumlin’s first year on the job in Tucson?

Yep….and that’s a Helluva Problem for the folks at Arizona because if a program is getting worse in Year 2 guess what happens 90% of the time to football programs in Year 3 for a Head Coach in the 12 years that Coaches Hot Seat has been around starting with the 2007 college football season >

They are no better or get worse in Year 3!

If Arizona does lose its last 3 games that will leave Sumlin’s records in 3 seasons on the job at….

Overall:  9 – 15

Pac-12:  6 – 12

…and more importantly in the metric we rely on most to decide if a coach is on the Hot Seat or not Kevin Sumlin’s record against FBS teams with .500+ records is…

3 – 11

A. Freaking. Disaster.