Time's up for Taggart: Florida State football fires head coach Willie Taggart during second season

Wayne McGahee III | Tallahassee Democrat

Florida State fired head coach Willie Taggart Sunday, following the Seminoles’ 27-10 loss to Miami Saturday.

The Seminoles (4-5, 3-4 ACC) were dominated in the loss by the Hurricanes and the FSU administration made the decision to move on from Taggart.

"I spoke to Coach Taggart this afternoon to let him know of our decision," said FSU Direcetor of Athletics David Coburn in a statement released by the University.

"I met with the team and coaches immediately after that conversation to let them know of the change. It was very important to us that the student-athletes know right away."

MORE FROM NOLESPORTS

The firing comes less than two years after Taggart was hired as the Seminoles’ coach.

Taggart put out a statement on Twitter in the hours following his firing.

"Obviously, I am disappointed in the decision today as I believe our future is bright at Florida State," Taggart said.

"Building a program and a culture takes time and I regret that we will not have the opportunity to continue to coach these incredible young men. I want to thank first and foremost our student-athletes who never stopped believing and who deserve to find success. I also want to thank our coaches and staff who believed in what we were building and who are among the finest men and women in our profession.

"Finally, I want to thank the Florida State faithful for their support as we worked towards building a program that we could be proud of. On behalf of my family and I, we wish Florida State nothing but the best and will be cheering on the Seminoles the rest of the way."

Defensive line coach Odell Haggins will take over as the interim head coach. He also took over as the interim head coach after Jimbo Fisher left for Texas A&M. He is 2-0 as the head coach at FSU.

Taggart left Oregon after one year to coach the Seminoles. He coached at South Florida for four seasons from 2013-16.

More from NoleSports:

He replaced Fisher, who left FSU to take over Texas A&M’s program after eight seasons as head coach of the Seminoles.

At the outset, Taggart nailed almost everything from recruiting to fundraising. But the product that FSU put on the field never followed suit.

Taggart had a 9-12 record at FSU and the Seminoles were 0-5 against in-state rivals UM and Florida and ACC rival Clemson.

"I hate it. I think Willie is a heck of a guy, heck of a coach," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said.

"But for whatever reason, it just didn’t work out. Unfortunately this is the time of year where you start to see some of that type of stuff... FSU is a great program and certainly this is a tough time for them, but no doubt they will be a great program again at some point."

Help the Tallahassee Democrat continue to provide in-depth reporting like this. Find our latest subscription options and special offers here.

The average score of those rivalry games was 40-15. FSU’s 28-27 loss to the Hurricanes in 2017 — after FSU blew a 20-point third quarter lead — was the only game that was decided by less than 17 points.

"I think very highly of Coach Taggart and wish him well, but in the interest of the university we had no choice but to make a change,” Florida State University President John Thrasher said.

"We will support our student-athletes in every way and do all we can to return to the winning tradition that is Seminole football.”

Taggart is 56-62 all-time as a head coach.

FSU is expected to hire a national search committee to help find his replacement.

FSU will owe Taggart just over $18 million by firing him in November. The buyout drops to $17 million in January. He had more than four years remaining on his contract and will receive 85% of his remaining salary in compensation.

Back story: $5 million season: 2018-19 salary information online for Willie Taggart, FBS head coaches

If FSU dumps the entire assistant coaching staff, they will owe $3.62 million just to Kendal Briles, Harlon Barnett, Randy Clements and Ron Dugans, subject to a duty to mitigate and offset. Those four assistants are the only ones whose contracts run beyond Jan. 31, 2020.

With what FSU owes the other guys on the staff, altogether, the assistants and the strength coach would be owed about $4 million, subject to mitigation and offset.

FSU has lost three of its last four games, against No. 3 Clemson, No. 22 Wake Forest, and Miami.

The Seminoles finished 5-7 in Taggart’s first year and missed a bowl game for the first time since 1981. They hadn’t finished with a losing record since Bobby Bowden’s first year in 1976.

The Seminoles have three games remaining starting with a road match-up against Boston College Saturday. FSU will play Alabama State on Nov. 16 and will play at No. 6 Florida on Nov. 30. FSU needs two wins in the last three games to get bowl eligible.

Taggart’s nine wins at FSU have come against Samford, Northern Illinois, Wake Forest, Boston College, Louisville (x2), Louisiana-Monroe, North Carolina State, and Syracuse.

What it means for the FSU program | Analysis

FSU had to make the call to move on from Taggart despite the large buyout.

Fans have stopped coming to games, morale is low inside the program, and the belief that he could get it turned around was non-existent.

College football is a business and the program is losing money because of the product on the field. In the end, that money – and the money FSU would likely have lost in the future – outweighed Taggart's buyout.

It was a tough choice by the FSU administration, but they believe it was ultimately the right one.

Now it leaves the Seminoles with plenty of time before the early signing period to get a hire on-board without worrying.

Haggins has made it clear that he has no interest in being a head coach, so there's no need to worry about hurting his feelings by trying to hire someone else while he is still coaching games.

The early signing period is one of the main reasons that if FSU was going to let go of Taggart, it needed to do it soon. Recruiting is effectively over in December now with the majority of the recruits signing early.

Related: Florida State football recruiting: Three-star DB Derek Bermudez decommits from FSU

After the last three seasons, FSU can't afford not to nail this hire. It has to be someone that the FSU fanbase and players can believe in from the jump.

If you count Bobby Bowden’s departure as a retirement (debatable, I know), then this would be the first time FSU has fired a coach since Darrell Mudra, 44 years ago, after the 1975 season.

Taggart seemed like a good hire when FSU brought him in, but the Seminoles need to find someone with an established reputation as a winner to get the people surrounding the program back buying in.

Reach Wayne McGahee III at wmcgahee@tallahassee.com.