TALLAHASSEE -- Florida State’s waiver request for assistant coach David Kelly to move to an off-field role was denied by the NCAA.

Kelly will remain on the coaching staff -- counting as one of FSU’s 10 assistant coaches -- this season with the title of recruiting coordinator. He’ll have the ability to coach on the field, but will not have a specific role other than as the recruiting coordinator.

“We tried to get a waiver with Coach Kelly and unfortunately the waiver didn’t come through for us moving him off the field,” Taggart said Monday. “If that happens then a couple of our players will be ineligible. That’s one of those unintended consequences and we thought we’d get the waiver, considering the fact Coach Kelly has been with me at two other spots, not just out out of high school.”

The NCAA put in a IAWP (Individual Associated With a Prospect) rule in 2016 legislating the hiring of individuals associated with prospective recruits/players at institutions. This rule was meant to prevent schools from hiring individuals who have ties to a recruit as a reward for funneling them to a certain program. In this case, Kelly worked with Taggart as an off-field coach at USF and Oregon before moving onto the field as a receivers coach at FSU in 2018. It takes two academic years for a coach to be reassigned to non-coaching role.

More details on the legislation can be read here.

With Kelly as the recruiting coordinator, Ron Dugans will be FSU’s full-time receivers coach after being hired this offseason. Mark Snyder has been reassigned from defensive ends coach to special teams coach (and he’ll help out with linebackers as well).

Taggart said that FSU has moved on from the waiver process and it does not appear that he expects an appeal.

He does think there’s value to having Kelly focus specifically on recruiting.

“Recruiting has changed,” Taggart said. “You look at the transfer portal, you’re recruiting a lot of people. You’re recruiting portal, you’re recruiting high school kids, you’re recruiting your own team. Things are different now.”