EUGENE, Ore. -- Oregon coach Willie Taggart wants to build a foundation in Eugene that can produce national titles in the near future. And with spring practices kicking off Wednesday, that pursuit officially begins now.

So where was his final campus stop of the offseason?

The place that has most recently built a national champion -- Clemson, South Carolina.

Taggart had invited Clemson co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott to speak at a South Florida coaching clinic a season ago, and that talk had stuck with Taggart through the last year.

"I was really impressed then with what he had to say about what they do and how they do things," Taggart said. "Then you go and see them win the national championship. It's like, 'Man, it'd be cool to go and check out how they do things.'"

Willie Taggart and his staff took a trip to Clemson to see how the reigning national champions conduct their business. AP Photo/Chris Pietsch

So Taggart got in touch with Elliott to see if he and some coaches could swing by Clemson this offseason to observe before the Ducks embarked on their first spring under the new staff. Taggart said he mostly wanted to see the kind of a culture they had instilled within their program that allowed them to produce such consistent results so quickly into coach Dabo Swinney's tenure at Clemson.

It only took Swinney two and a half seasons (he took over as interim head coach in the middle of the 2008 season) to get Clemson to a level in which they won 10 games a season. Since the 2011 season, the Tigers have gone 70-13 (.843).

That kind of success is what Oregon is accustomed to, and that's the level which they hope Taggart can bring the Ducks to after finishing last season with a 4-8 record.

And though Taggart went to Clemson in the hopes of finding tips or the Tigers' quasi-blueprint for "how to quickly win a national title after taking over a program," he was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of similarities between the way Clemson went about its business and the way he conducted practices and meetings at USF and Western Kentucky.

"Seeing a team that won a national championship doing a lot of the same things you've done," Taggart said, "that's cool to see."

But there's one glaring challenge in both rebuilding a program (Oregon) and sustaining a program (Clemson) that both Swinney and Taggart face this season -- finding upperclassman leadership.

Swinney must deal with the departures of quarterback Deshaun Watson, wide receivers Mike Williams and Artavis Scott, and linebacker Ben Boulware from a production and leadership standpoint, while Taggart's challenge differs slightly.

Taggart has the benefit of taking over a program that has several seniors that have played a lot and are in natural positions to lead -- running back Royce Freeman, wide receiver Charles Nelson, defensive back Tyree Robinson. He just needs to make sure that they're ready to lead in the way in which he expects his seniors to lead.

In order to help that process along as much as possible, Taggart has added extra meetings with the senior class, which is something he didn't do quite as well during his first two head coaching stops at Western Kentucky and USF.

"I don't think I did a good job at the last two jobs of catering to the seniors and getting to know them better," Taggart said. "You hear people talk about it all the time -- senior leadership. That doesn't just happen. ... Being around them, spending time with them and developing those leadership qualities, I think that's going to be important."

With potential senior leaders -- and established playmakers on both sides of the ball -- settling in, Taggart should have a good opportunity to lay the kind of foundation he wants in Eugene starting this spring. With any luck, he'll be accepting the requests of other teams wishing to come and observe how the Ducks go through practices sooner rather than later.