Part II: Exclusive interview with Florida State coach Willie Taggart

It's time to get to know Florida State's new head football coach.

Willie Taggart sat down and spoke with Tallahassee Democrat FSU beat writers Wayne McGahee III and Curt Weiler in an exclusive interview about a number of different topics -- including the lead-up to his arrival at FSU, growing up an FSU fan, and what his first few days as head coach were like.

This will be the second part of a three-part Q&A series that will be released this week.

More: Part I: Exclusive interview with Florida State coach Willie Taggart

Part II focuses on Taggart's family and his first few weeks as FSU's head coach.

Q. Looking back to those first couple of days when you’ve got to worry about filling out a new coaching staff and the new early signing period, what was that like for you?

A. I think from the past experience of going places helped, but this being your dream job, where you always wanted to be, made it a little tougher because you just want to do everything right. You’re so locked in and don’t want to make any mistakes. Then you’ve got this thing called the early signing period, which was new to the process. It was tough, but like any other thing, you learn about it and then put a plan together and try to execute your plan. We were able to do it, but it was different for me this time because our team was still playing. We were playing for a bowl game. In the past when I’ve taken over a team, we weren’t playing in a bowl game. So it was different from that standpoint.

The process here was a little different. I got to evaluate our players and coaches before I had to make any decisions on who I want to bring in here, which was really beneficial. I got to see guys practice. You get to see them coach. You get to see guys take coaching. It helps you put together a staff for what you think is best needed for your players and the program. The right fit for the program and for all of them. That was what was important for me. I didn’t want to rush it. I wanted to get the right ones, the right fit that will do well for our players.

Q. This program is different from the others you’ve taken over as far as winning, how did that change how you’ve done things when you’re coming into a new program?

A. We’ve got some good players, and being able to come here it helps you knowing what you can go out there and recruit. That part of it, if anything, that was a big part of understanding what you have and what you need help with. It actually helps you prepare with your plan of going out and recruiting, and who you want to go after. For us during that early signing period, we really wanted to keep the guys we had committed, but we wanted some guys to wait until the next one so we could build relationships. We didn’t have one with some guys. Try to build relationships so they could see the coaching staff that we were going to bring here and go from there.

Being at Florida State helps. A lot of kids grow up and love Florida State so that helped big time. Just being able to watch them play, I think that made things a little easier for us. Probably scared most people at first. Didn’t think we were going to get any recruits after the first signing period, but this is Florida State. They’re going to come.

Q. You coached against Florida State in 2015 and 2016. You’ve coached in Doak Campbell Stadium. Could you have imagined back then that you’d be coaching here in such a short time?

A. Not in a short time. I figured one day. That was always the goal. To be the head football coach at Florida State someday. I didn’t think that was going to happen this quick. I had a chance to come up here and play, which was pretty cool. It was the first year and it was like, ‘Damn. This is the first year I’ve got to go against Florida State and I’m on the other team.’ You come up here and hear the chant and the crowd and it was like, ‘Wow. This is impressive.’ Then you see the guys over there and you’re like, ‘Whoa. They’re some mutants that we’ve got to go against.’ For me that was big time to be in the stadium and play.

Of course, we wanted to beat Florida State. First time I wanted Florida State football to lose. Then they came down to play us my last year at South Florida. Everybody was excited. My family was excited. I knew how crazy my brother was about Florida State so I wanted to see that response, and he kept it real. ‘I love you bro, but I can’t go against my ‘Noles.’ You’ve got to be kidding me. What happened to blood is thicker than water? I guess that’s what being a ‘Nole fan will do to you. Even have you turn against your family. It’s pretty cool.

Q. How many tickets do you think you’re going to need for each game?

A. I don’t know. That’s going to be up to someone else to get those tickets. I just worry about my mom. Make sure she has a ticket, and my sisters and brothers. It’s a good little ways from Palmetto too. Getting up here every weekend, I might have to get an apartment so mom can stay up here and be around. I know there will be a lot of people traveling from Manatee County to support. Can’t get them all tickets, but I don’t handle it so that helps. Nobody can get upset with me.

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Q. What was your mom’s reaction when you told her you accepted the job?

A. She’s funny now. Leading up to it, just like everybody else reading and hearing things about it. I’d get a text here and there. I remember getting a text one day saying, ‘I love you and I’m proud of you, and I’ll be happy no matter what you decide to do.’ I called her, ‘Mom, where did that come from?’ I told her don’t believe everything you’re hearing out there. I hadn’t talked to anybody from there. She was just saying, ‘I’m happy whatever you do.’

Then when it all went down and I got the job, ‘Oh I’m so happy you decided to come back.’ So it was cool because our first time out in the northwest coming out to Oregon, I was happy because my mom finally left the state of Florida to go see other parts of the country, but she was happy that I was closer.

Q. How has the rest of your family handled the transition?

A. They’ve been good. They’re kind of vets doing it now. They’ve been great. I think it takes a great wife to be able to do some of the things that we’ve done over the year, and it takes a strong, good, hard-driven kids to go through that as well. Our kids have been awesome. Our kids get along with anyone. I always feel like I don’t care where we go our kids will adjust. That don’t necessarily mean they like it, but they do a good job because they’re good with people. They’ve always been that way and everyone tends to like them. They’ve adjusted well.

My son came here and started playing basketball as soon as he got here, which was great that he was able to get on a basketball team because he was on one out there and they were really doing well. I think that helped him being around and meeting friends and teammates. It was great because they all get to go to the same school too. So that’s been good. They’ve adjusted well. They’re back in Florida. They’re happy. Happy wife, happy life.

Q. When you were going through your coaching search, you brought in a lot of guys with ties to the state of Florida, but you also brought in a lot of guys who really didn’t have ties to the state of Florida like Coach Barnett, Coach Snyder, Coach Bell. What was the idea behind bringing in a staff that had experience all over the country rather than just a centralized location like Florida?

A. I don’t think you need a staff full of guys with connections in Florida. I think we have enough guys that coached in the state and coached around the state to where they have connections. Florida State is Florida State. The connections help, but being Florida State and the state of Florida, kids and their parents know sometimes a lot more about Florida State than you do.

Part of it was getting guys with connections who had those relationships. But, for me, in putting together our staff, it was just about getting the right fit. Overall, I didn’t really care about where you were from. It was just how do you fit on the staff, what’s your personality like, how important mentoring is to you because that’s really important to me. If mentoring is not important to you, you can’t be on my staff. It was just getting the right fit. Overall, just how I really like things to be and what I think our players need. Getting guys that fit that, those categories, to help me with our football team. I know one thing: I wanted an ego-less staff. I didn’t have time for a lot of egos. It’s a team sport, I need team guys all about the team and all about the vision that I have set forth for our football program.

Q. What’s the origin of Do Something? Where did that come from?

A. Growing up, I actually had a high school friend and he used to say that all the time when we were in high school. I don’t care what it was, he would always say, “Do Something.” That was his comeback. I don’t care what it was. It just always stuck out. It was one of those things that stuck with you. It’s the truth. If you want something, you have to do something. That’s the world we live in. You always hear people saying no one is going to give you anything, you have to go out and do something. If you just sit back and listen to people talk, how often do you hear them say you need to go do something. When you want something done, you need to go do something.

In the game of football, we want things done. Players want to play, you have to do something to play. Want to be an All-American? You have to go out every play and you have to do something. You want to go to the NFL, you have to do something. I think that’s with anything in life. If you want to be a great husband, you have to do something. Great father, you have to do something. He used to say it like that all the time, it stuck with me and that’s kind of how I took it. It’s been like that for me ever since then. I just put it with those three things I always talk about. Not making any excuses or blaming any one. You have to do something. That’s just how I live my life. Never made any excuses or blamed anyone else but me. Being successful is all up to me. Have to go do something, make it happen.

Part III will be released on Thursday and cover the lead-up to National Signing Day, the chase, and spring practice.