Willie Taggert fired
- Thread starter sWiley
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I’ve always been worried about those retread coaches that are sitting on a pile of severance money from getting fired. They are Financially set for life and when they switch to a job making $750K a year, do they really work as hard? People like Kiffin do, but apparently not Willie.
sorry but I’m glad to see Dearmon on the street.
sorry but I’m glad to see Dearmon on the street.
I trade him for Stock today (there's probably not a coach in FBS I wouldnt though). I wonder if he got his $$$$$ and just lost the edge. I thought he was great at WKU, solid at USF and Oregon, and then the wheels fell off at FSU. I thought FAU made a good hire when they picked him up.
Great at WKU? He was 16-20 overall with 0 conference titles. He was 24-25 at USF with 0 conference titles. 7-5 at Oregon with 0 conference titles. 9-12 at FSU with 0 conference titles. 15-18 at FAU with, you guessed it, 0 conference titles. He is 0-2 in bowl games. Please tell me why you would want him over Stock.
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Did you know that Taggart went 11-11 at FAU in conference? Over the same period, Stock went 11-12.
The Hilltoppers went from 2-10, to 7-5, 7-5 his 3 seasons there. USF won 2, 4, 8, 10 wins his 4 seasons there. Oregon went from 4-8 the year before he got there and he went 7-5 the year he got there.
At some point, Taggart did well enough to land elite level jobs at Oregon and Florida State.
Who's calling Stock's phone?
Taggart got fired at 15-18. Stock is 17-17 over the same period, and got an extension until 2029. If that doesn't tell you all you need to know about our programs and why one is headed to the AAC and the other is headed to a conference with New Mexico State and Kennesaw, i don't know what will.
Me not wanting Taggart is not defending keeping or extending Stock. Taggart has a losing record and has never won a conference championship or bowl game. What makes you think he would do anything better than Stock has? I have no idea how he got elite jobs, but clearly he was a mistake hire.
Because he built both WKU and USF into quality teams.
I know this is a bit of cherry picking here, but if you take out the first two years at WKU and USF where he was clearly cleaning up a mess (WKU had gone 0-12 the year before), his G5 record is 51-43.
I also think he got a raw deal at FSU as Jimbo left that program with serious facility, budget, and culture issues.
To be honest, I don't think he could do any worse than what we have right now. But at the least, it's a swing of the bat. There's at least a chance Taggart could do something good here. What we have ain't getting the job done.
I'm literally on the "anyone but Stock" train at this point.
It's to the point that the best shot at any sign of hope is Florida State calling on Coach500.
Since there is about zero percent chance of that happening, it's still a better shot than the leadership of MTSU making any real significant changes.
For the love of all that is good, please somebody just make it all end. 🤢
Since there is about zero percent chance of that happening, it's still a better shot than the leadership of MTSU making any real significant changes.
For the love of all that is good, please somebody just make it all end. 🤢
Willie was not better than Stock at Western or at FAU. He never had a winning season at FAU. (3 seasons) I'm not a Stock fan but Willie is terrible and shouldn't be a HC anymore ever.
Technically, he had a winning record in 2020 covid year - 5-4.
And over a 3 year period, he was actually .500 in conference, vs sub-.500 for Stock.
I'm not arguing that he's the next coming of Lombardi. But if he's terrible and shouldn't be a HC anymore ever - we have virtualy an identical coach here. At the very least, Taggart has accomplished more in his career than Stock (had a team finish top 25, beat a top 25 team in a bowl, landed a couple of very prestigious jobs).
So, if you're asking me if I'd fire Stock for Taggart - yes, I would. Might be in the market again in 3 years, but at least they'd be trying. Hell, i'd trade Stock for a coach-bot that chose a random 8 plays tecmo-bowl style.
From what I saw he doesn't have any bowl wins at all. His team may have won a bowl against a top 25 team, but he didn't coach in it. He did not succeed at a place like Florida State with all its resources and fertile recruiting ground. What makes you think he would even do as good as Stock here when he did about at best same as Stock at FAU? There are a lot of coaches I would take over Stock, but Taggert is not one of them.
Good Lord. The only coach worst than Stock is Taggert.
I still think he's better than what we have. Like I said before, there's some decent coaching behind the #'s if you choose to look at it. He did well enough at certain points in his career to land two top 10/15 jobs in college football.
It's very likely that if Stock found himself unemployed today, Taggart would still find himself an opportunity before anyone would hire Stock.
He's certainly not in any significant way, a worse head coach than what we are stuck with.
I'll see your taggart and raise you a watson brown... I'm sure if something happened to coach .500, stooge mcphee would pull watson brown out of mothballs.
Please no.
I honestly guarantee and would lay $ that if Stock retired tomorrow the very first call would be Manny.
On the coaching note, K.C. Keeler is on the short list supposedly for Texas State.
Keeler is currently the coach at soon to be conference mate Sam Houston. Is 85-27 there. Total record there, at Div II Delaware, and Div III Rowan....259-98-1. Jeez.
Keeler is currently the coach at soon to be conference mate Sam Houston. Is 85-27 there. Total record there, at Div II Delaware, and Div III Rowan....259-98-1. Jeez.
You can manipulate stats to support your story.
The reality is Stock and Willie are near mirror images of one another. Neither one of them has been able to deliver the goods when it mattered. I guess at least with Stock you know you are getting a clean program and high graduations rates and APR???
If you want to argue that you want Willie because he's not Stock and you want to try something different, I guess I can get on board with that but it's a futile effort with both of them.
Much better candidates out there
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You are right. That's on me for reading 1-AA as Div 2. I forget (often) that it became FCS and that it and FBS are both Div 1. Especially when FCS and FBS are operated so differently.
Taggart has a losing record vs. Stock. That's all I need to know. Not an upgrade.
That's exactly my argument.
You guys are dumping on Taggart like he's awful when he's the same guy we have.
Another change for a departing school. WVU just hired Wren Baker from UNT as their AD. Super great get in my book.
Rock star AD. He gets it. First time I met him was introduced by Massaro giving him a tour of the Hendrix Stadium Club in 2013 for the Memphis game. He was the Tiger Deputy AD.
A year later, we organized a group of former players who funded the DVD conversion of approx 40 big cans of 16mm color game film that was rescued from a dumpster by a former player and coach. It was footage used in the coaches shows (Pancoast and Williamson) from ‘75-‘80. It had been in his attic for 30 years.
When Wren heard what we were doing, he offered to pay half of the cost ($3,000) from the AD’s budget. Needless to say the PR points and additional donations he got from the gesture was invaluable.
If Stock were to win a conf champ next year, would it change anyone's thoughts? Or would it take several years to make up for the last several?
My reasoning to ask is that next year it will be a significantly watered down group. I fully do not expect it to stay that way and JSU or SHSU could easily pull what JMU did this year. And Liberty may not lose a beat with Freeze gone. But it seems that first year of adjustment is an opportunity. But would it mean the same as it would beating UAB or UTSA?
MT, WKU, FIU, UTEP, LaT, JSU, NMSU, SHSU, LU
My reasoning to ask is that next year it will be a significantly watered down group. I fully do not expect it to stay that way and JSU or SHSU could easily pull what JMU did this year. And Liberty may not lose a beat with Freeze gone. But it seems that first year of adjustment is an opportunity. But would it mean the same as it would beating UAB or UTSA?
MT, WKU, FIU, UTEP, LaT, JSU, NMSU, SHSU, LU
It would take a run of several years, after all this time of repeated failures. I'm sure it worked that way with Kermit...
If I remember correctly, it took 2-3 years for the attendance to significantly and consistently respond to Kermit getting the program to the championship level.
After one season of the improved performance, attendance would seem to get a little boost for a few games here and there if you looked closely enough.
I remember noticing the slow response of the public with attendance to the improved performance of the team. I was a little surprised by the delayed or slow response by the public to return to the Murphy Center. Then when I considered that it had been around 20 years since MT had been a championship caliber team, it made sense that it would take at least a couple of years of sustained championship caliber basketball before the public got back on board with consistently attending games in substantially larger numbers.
He's more likable.
Plus, at the very least, there's at least a glimmer of a coach that landed the Oregon and FSU jobs and he recruits a heck of a lot better than Coach Wet Cardboard. Maybe it's a 1 in a million shot, but the guy we have is a none in a million shot to be successful here.
I am sure after 3 straight 5-7 seasons you will hate him just as much as you do Stock.
The grass is always greener until you get that water bill and see that you got a bill of goods and that's Taggart.
Doubtful. I've been fans of teams with bad coaches before. If you try your best and fail, I might want a new coach, but I won't hate anyone for it.
One guy is guilty of just not being a great coach. The other guy is an actual fraud.
No.
He has worn out his welcome.
Stock has been here entirely too long. In 2017, exactly 2 FBS coaches had been at their school more than 13 years. The average tenure was 3.8 years +/- 3.8. That puts Stock 3 standard deviations outside the normal distribution. I know the numbers would be slightly different now, but similar to 5 years ago.
When you look at those that are in long term tenures now, it’s military academies, Saban, Dabo, Ferentz, Pat Fitz, Whittingham and Stock. Take out the academies because those are rare breeds and compare success, Stock only comes close to Pat Fitzgerald.
Interestingly before Kermit got hot in year 9, the 2 longest tenured basketball HC at FBS schools w/o a NIT/NCAA bid were Kermit and Northwestern’s coach at the time.
So Massaro runs his program unlike any other school but Northwestern. Not sure that’s the athletic excellence comparison you want as an AD, but digress.
Stock is so far outside the normal tenure he really would take extreme success just to justify him being here at this point. Which he doesn’t have.
There is nothing he can do to change the narrative he should not be here now. It is completely outside the norm by any measurable statistic. And the auto contract extension should be fireable for Massaro and McPhee. Literally I consider it misappropriating funds given the results.
He could go undefeated next year and win a National championship, and it it still does not change he should not be here. I would be happy he won while he was here, but success doesn’t change the fact he has no business being our coach now
Did you all see the Taggart buyout? Less than $300K. If only, if only. Though he either is still getting paid or got paid a ton from FSU so he probably was not too concerned with it.
Tom Herman Reportedly Lands New Head Coaching Job
Tom Herman is reportedly heading to FAU. The Owls have reportedly hired the former Texas coach. What are the contract details?
www.outkick.com
Great hire for FAU. He's a good coach. Not sure how long he stays, so if they get 2 years from him they are lucky.
Texas is a tough place to coach, lot's of talented players, but definitely a sense of entitlement there so I don't hold that against Herman too much.
Texas is a tough place to coach, lot's of talented players, but definitely a sense of entitlement there so I don't hold that against Herman too much.
