FSU football players actually being held accountable by Willie Taggart

Wayne McGahee III | Tallahassee Democrat

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Accountability.

That was the buzzword for Florida State at the 2018 ACC Football Kickoff on Thursday.

FSU had a problem with its players being held accountable on and off the field in 2017, and the results on the field reflected that issue.

The Seminoles went 7-6 under Jimbo Fisher for the first time since 2009 and needed to reschedule a game against Louisiana-Monroe in order to become bowl-eligible.

Fisher bolted for Texas A&M on the first day of December and left the program in a state of disrepair.

When Willie Taggart took over as the head coach at the beginning of December, he set the tone from his first day on the job.

"Accountability is something that coach Taggart stresses every day," FSU running back Cam Akers said.

"From the first day he came in he knew this team had a problem with accountability. That’s something he stressed and he stayed on us about. We’ve gotten a lot better on holding each other accountable and doing things the right way."

Taggart has been at the helm for the Seminoles for eight months now, and the feel of the program is completely different.

The players have bought in to Taggart's vision of the team, which also coincides with the reasons that they chose to come to FSU and not go somewhere else.

'We just told our guys that we can’t keep doing the same things and expect different results," Taggart said.

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"Here’s how we’re going to do it. This is what they all signed up for. They all came to Florida State. They wanted to win a championship, they wanted to go to the NFL, they all want to graduate. Those are all things they said they want to do not me.

"We told them day one that we’re going to hold you accountable to doing those things… They’re starting to see the results behind it. We had one of our best years academically because of accountability."

FSU went through summer workouts with new strength and conditioning coach Irele Oderinde at the helm, and he's completely changed the way FSU goes about its workouts.

It's a fast workout with no downtime for the players to sit down or take a break. They're constantly working or moving to the next area for the next workout until it's over.

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Attendance for the workouts is mandatory, and this year, there's actually a consequence for missing one.

"Everybody showed up," FSU defensive end Brian Burns said.

"You can’t make any excuses. You either get there or you get there. You’ve only got one choice. If you don’t, this is not an option, but if you don’t, you’ve got a punishment and it’s nothing you want to be a part of, let me tell you that."

Arriving late for a 6 a.m. practice is also unacceptable, and the punishment for that is stiff.

Players get put on "dawn patrol" where they're required to push a 45-pound plate 20 yards across the field 20 times in a certain time limit.

Akers actually laughed when asked if there were any punishments under the previous coaching staff.

"I love it," Burns said

"They don’t have a choice. If they don’t like it they’ve got to go. It is what it is. I’m just happy that there’s a system and that’s something that you have to abide to. Not saying anything about before, but guys used to do a whole bunch of stuff before. I’m just glad that there’s a law I guess. It’s making guys accountable for their actions."

Watch it: Three-star OT Charles Cross works out at FSU Big Man Camp Three-star offensive tackle Charles Cross works out at FSU during the Big Man Camp in 2018.

Both the coaching staff and the strength and conditioning staff have made holding the players accountable one of the top priorities this off-season with the intentions of changing the culture at FSU.

That's starting to come to fruition as the players are taking more of a responsibility for holding each other accountable, and the coaches are having to do it less and less.

It's just the start of what Taggart was looking to accomplish from the moment he took the job, but the Seminoles are now on track with the culture he was looking to build.

"What’s starting to happen now is they’re starting to hold each other accountable," Taggart said.

"I’m not getting emotionally hijacked like I did when I first got here because those guys are taking care of each other now. To me once that starts to happen is when everything else starts to change for you. … You can’t just talk it. You’ve got to live it every single day. What’s happening now is our guys are starting to see the change by living it every single day."