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The Florida State football program has ended the painful Willie Taggart experiment. After going 9-12 to start his career in Tallahassee and jumping out to a disappointing 4-5 start to the 2019 college football season, the Seminoles made the decision to fire Taggart following this past weekend’s loss to the rival Miami Hurricanes.
That means a coaching search will be underway during the offseason as Florida State looks to rejuvenate the program and make a run back to national prominence.
Of course, because Florida State is a major program, there should be no shortage of big-name coaches interested in the job.
And according to the latest reports, favorites are already emerging in the race to replace Taggart as the Seminoles’ next head coach. One of the names is a former Big 12 and national champion, who actually beat Florida State in the title game while with his old program.
From the Tallahassee Democrat:
Stoops retired following the 2017 season at Oklahoma after 18 seasons as the head coach of the Sooners. He unretired to take over the XFL’s Dallas Renegades as the head coach and general manager in February.
He has ties to the state of Florida from when he was Florida’s defensive coordinator from 1996-98 and has won multiple coach of the year awards. The Sooners finished with 10 or more wins in 14 of the 18 years that he coached. Sources have told the Democrat that FSU would be looking to bring in an established coach that’s a known winner and that Stoops would likely be at the top of the list.
Other names that could be considered are Urban Meyer, Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell, Minnesota’s PJ Fleck, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops, Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables, and even former Georgia and Miami head coach Mark Richt.
We’ll have to see who ultimately lands the job, but we know the Seminoles fan base is going to be looking for a winner.
