EUGENE -- For the past 21 years, the searches for Oregon's next football coach all yielded a familiar face.

Some introductions will be necessary this time around: Meet Willie Taggart.

Taggart, 40, is leaving South Florida to succeed Mark Helfrich as coach of the Oregon Ducks, the Ducks announced Wednesday morning. The AP and ESPN first reported the news earlier Wednesday.

Taggart arrived in Eugene late Wednesday, and was welcomed at the airport by athletic director Rob Mullens and other UO officials.

"Crazy," he called his last 24 hours, after stepping off the plane. "It's been exciting, a lot of mixed emotions but so happy to be here at Oregon.

"(We've) got a chance to win a national championship, that's what we're gonna do."

Taggart was not the splashy hire some believed UO could land when the coaching search began one week prior, as he led the Bulls to a 24-25 record in four seasons and was 16-20 at Western Kentucky in three prior seasons as the Hilltoppers transitioned to the Football Bowl Subdivision. At each stop, the former Stanford assistant undertook ground-up rebuilds and left the programs better than when he inherited them. The Bulls were winless in 2012, prior to Taggart's hiring, and won two games during his first season, but have won four, eight and 10 games since. The Bulls won 17 of their last 21 games under Taggart.

"We are thrilled to welcome Willie, his wife, Taneshia, their sons, Willie Jr. and Jackson, and their daughter, Morgan," Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens said in a statement. "Willie places an emphasis on ensuring a positive student-athlete experience and on winning, and his previous stops have proven his success at both. We have a very bright future under his leadership."

The length and value of Taggart's deal have not been finalized, with UO Board of Trustees members set to arrange the final details by conference call Friday. But reports by FOX Sports and SI.com indicate he will receive a five-year contract worth an average of close to $3.3 million per season. Helfrich was set to earn $3.5 million this season in total compensation, including $2.95 million in base salary. UO owes Helfrich $11.6 million for the three remaining years on his contract.

According to Taggart's buyout with USF, he will owe the school $1.7 million.

Taggart's hiring comes with several historical distinctions: He becomes the first black head football coach in the 122-year history of UO's program; is the first to take the job with prior head coaching experience since Mike Bellotti in 1995; and is the first head football coach hired from outside the current UO staff since 1976.

After in-house promotions led to UO's last three head coaches, Mullens' decision to go outside for UO's 33rd football head coach was expected from the very start of the search, yet it marks a massive shift in the program's unique way of doing business nonetheless. And that's just Day One of Taggart's tenure, which could include many more changes for a program that boasted some of the deepest coaching roots and one of the clearest identities in all of college football before stumbling to a 4-8 season this fall that precipitated Helfrich's firing.

Now it's up to Taggart whether he will retain any of the elements long associated with Oregon's rise to success -- its blur offense, flashy uniforms and unusually long-tenured assistants -- or forge ahead with a clean slate after the program's worst season since 1991.

At least one thing will feel familiar: Like Bellotti, Chip Kelly and Helfrich before him at UO, Taggart's background is on offense. USF quarterback Quinton Flowers averaged 331.3 yards of total offense this season, the 10th-highest average in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the beneficiary of a switch to a faster-tempo offense. South Florida's 43.6 points per game -- a 10-point jump from 2015 -- ranks seventh-best.

Taggart said goodbye to the Bulls in what was described as an emotional team meeting in Tampa on Wednesday morning, then flew cross-country to Eugene.

"It was tough but been through it before and it's part of it," Taggart said Wednesday evening. "I'm really excited. Going to miss the guys at South Florida and excited about seeing my guys here."

His top priorities before the weekend are to "work," he said with a smile. Asked if he wants to hire coordinators soon, Taggart said he first wanted to recruit, and earn the trust from, UO players first.

According to an ESPN report Wednesday morning, Taggart and Mississippi State's Dan Mullen were finalists for the job.

Taggart is familiar with the West Coast after serving as Stanford's running backs coach from 2007-09 under Jim Harbaugh, where he coached Heisman Trophy runner-up and Doak Walker Award winner Toby Gerhart. Prior to Stanford, he was an assistant at Western Kentucky from 1999-2006, and was co-offensive coordinator when WKU won the FCS national championship in 2002.

Taggart's ties to Harbaugh run deep, as the current Michigan coach recruited Taggart to WKU, where he played quarterback from 1995-98 under head coach Jack Harbaugh, Jim's father. Taggart was a finalist for the Walter Payton Award -- the Heisman of the FCS -- as a junior and senior. Jim Harbaugh was the best man in Taggart's wedding, and Taggart was an usher at Jim's nuptials, according to a 2013 Tampa Bay Times profile. And Taggart named a son after Jack Harbaugh.

Along with Harbaugh, Taggart also had a vocal supporters in Big 12 commissioner and former Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby, NCAA official Oliver Luck and Tony Dungy. The Super Bowl winning coach, whose son, Eric, played at both UO and South Florida, was not shy about praising Taggart to UO's search committee.

"I was just thinking he's ideal for they want to do out there," Dungy told the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday. "The fact that Coach Taggart was at Stanford, he knows the Pac-12 and he's been successful in two places, getting things going. He's young, he's energetic, he kind of fits Oregon's MO. I just think he'd be a good fit."

Willie Taggart celebrates after South Florida beat the Temple Owls 44-23 in 2015,

Oregon's search began the evening of Nov. 29, after Mullens informed Helfrich of his decision to fire him after four seasons and a 37-16 record, and two seasons after the Ducks played for a College Football Playoff national championship. The Ducks were 13-12 the past two seasons and their struggles came to a head this fall as they played with one of the youngest rosters in the country. Late in the season, the defense played just two seniors alongside seven freshmen as injuries pared away healthy bodies from a depth chart already sorely lacking experience. On offense, four freshman linemen protected true freshman quarterback Justin Herbert. Three losses came by three points. Five others by double digits.

With the injuries and losses mounting, several program insiders called it a "perfect storm" for a bowl-less season. In firing Helfrich, Mullens made clear he saw the issues as larger than one season, however, citing the team's "culture" and "poor trajectory.

Mullens began the search by interviewing Taggart, Boise State's Bryan Harsin and Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano in Texas late last week. Oregon representatives also met with Temple's Matt Rhule before he opted instead to take the open job at Baylor, according to reports from USA Today and CBS Sports.

Taggart takes over a program facing several challenges that belie the program's perks in facilities, donor money and recent success. The Ducks created an identity under Chip Kelly that revolved around an uptempo offense and myriad uniforms, both of which were ahead of their time. Oregon played for national championships in 2010 and 2014. Also in 2014, Marcus Mariota became the program's first Heisman Trophy winner.

The appeal of the offense and uniforms soon spread across the country, however, which increased competition and reinforced the challenge of Oregon's geography and demographics. The state produces few top recruits and now other programs have begun encroaching on that already scarce recruiting territory. Washington, which is playing in the College Football Playoff in Chris Petersen's third season as coach, has secured commitments from two of the state's best defensive players, and Oregon State -- fresh off its first Civil War win in nine seasons -- is enjoying momentum that, together with the rise of the Huskies and Washington State, have made the Pac-12 North title no longer a yearly duel between only the Ducks and Stanford.

Job One for Taggart is limiting the attrition to UO's roster and 2017 recruiting class, which ranks 42nd by Rivals and 47th by 247Sports. Defensive back Deommodore Lenoir, defensive end Langi Tuifua and offensive lineman John Vaka have backed off their verbal commitments since Helfrich's firing, and UO had been seeking improvements at every level of their 126th-ranked scoring defense. Shortly after the announcement of the hiring, Lenoir told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he "can't wait to meet" Taggart.

Then there's the issue of stopping the bleeding defensively. The Ducks have ranked as one of the worst units in the country each of the past two seasons. South Florida ranks 86th in the FBS in 2016, allowing 31 points per game.

But both Helfrich and former linebackers coach Don Pellum each last week made the case they believe the new staff will have promising young players to work with.

"We had a very young team playing a tough schedule, things everybody had, injuries," Helfrich said in a Dec. 2 ESPN Radio interview. "I think the combination of moving forward with this group of guys, whoever ends up being the coach here, they'll inherit a very talented team. A couple good quarterbacks on campus, couple guys coming in that will be impact players."

Less than 15 minutes after landing in Eugene on Wednesday, Taggart agreed.

Asked about his impression of the weapons he will inherit on UO's offense, the new coach smiled.

"A lot of them," he said.

-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

@andrewgreif