Willie Taggart, after just one season at the helm at the University of Oregon, has reached an agreement to be Florida State’s next head coach.
A team meeting between Taggart and the Oregon players is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. this afternoon, West Coast Time.
Taggart went 7-5 in his lone season with the Ducks. He replaced Mark Helfrich in Eugene after spending four seasons at South Florida, where he became a hot coaching candidate after finishing with an 18-7 record in his final two seasons with the Bulls.
The Florida native is regarded as one of the top up-and-coming offensive minds in college football and brings along to Tallahassee his strong recruiting ties in the state.
Bruce Feldman on Twitter
I’m told Willie Taggart loved his situation at #Oregon but he couldn’t pass us the chance to go home especially for a job like #FSU’s. He grew up an FSU fan back in the days of Warrick Dunn, Charlie Ward and Amp Lee.
Taggart, 41, interviewed with FSU officials on Monday about the job. Charlie Strong, who replaced Taggart at South Florida, also met with FSU officials this weekend.
Taggart replaces Jimbo Fisher, who left FSU to take the Texas A&M head coaching job, and becomes only the third head coach at Florida State in the last 43 years. Bobby Bowden guided the FSU program for 34 years and Fisher for the last eight.
