Oregon coaches watch Clemson scrimmage

David Hood by Senior Writer -

Oregon head coach Willie Taggart and one of his assistants were in Clemson Wednesday, and they watched Clemson's scrimmage in Death Valley.

Taggart was named the head coach at Oregon in early December after four seasons at South Florida. Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables said spring is a time when college coaches visit other schools, and that Clemson is an attractive destination after back-to-back National Championship appearances.

"He's had an incredible career and done a good job wherever he has been," Venables said of Taggart. "It's that time of year - coaches are trying to get some new ideas and maybe a new way to say things or do things or structure things. I think there are some similarities to what we do on offense and the way Coach (Dabo) Swinney manages things. I think that is pretty attractive for anyone to come over and take a peek into the neighbor's` yard."

The two coached against each other when Venables was at Oklahoma and Taggart was on Jim Harbaugh's staff at Stanford.

"I have known who he is for a long time," Venables said. "He's had incredible success and did a great job at South Florida and Western Kentucky. And we played against him when he was coaching out at Stanford and we were at Oklahoma."