Schoffel Column: Now, it's time for Taggart to get to the heavy lifting

In just over two months on the job, Willie Taggart has earned well-deserved praise for a number of early accomplishments.

He assembled an impressive coaching staff, filled with a solid combination of coaches from three different camps -- those he’s worked with in the past, those with strong FSU connections, and those who will bring unique perspectives because they come from neither of the first two categories.

He salvaged his first recruiting class (and then some), lifting it from near-oblivion to a No. 10 final ranking from Rivals.com.

And he and his assistants have quickly won over staff members throughout the Moore Athletics Center, displaying a willingness to embrace the rest of the athletics department instead of practicing the type of isolationism that was prevalent during Jimbo Fisher’s tenure. The football coaches are mingling with people in other departments. They’re often eating in the dining hall instead of carrying their meals back to the football office. They’re introducing themselves to people around the building.

“They’ve been a breath of fresh air,” several FSU employees have told me in recent weeks.

Those are all positive developments, and they will go a long way in shaping the success of Taggart’s tenure.

But for my money, the most important thing Taggart has done since he arrived in early December is identifying exactly what went wrong with the Florida State football team last season. Understanding how a team that opened the season ranked No. 3 nationally could lose five of its first seven games, including a humiliating 35-3 loss at Boston College.

“I wasn’t here,” Taggart told boosters and fans last Wednesday night. “But from what I saw on film, I didn’t see a football team that played for one another.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a crystallized thought. The man summed up Florida State’s entire 2017 football season in just one sentence.

Let’s call it “lingual simplicity.”

While Taggart isn’t the first person to understand why things fell apart for the Seminoles in Jimbo Fisher’s final season, he is in the unique position of being able to do something about it. Of course, knowing what needs to be done is one thing; effecting the necessary change in quick fashion is something entirely different.

While much has been made about all the ground Taggart had to make up on the recruiting trail, the modifications he must make within the culture of the FSU program are far more daunting. Before he can get Florida State back to its winning ways, Taggart is going to have to redirect a program that has been derailed by entitlement and a lack of accountability.

This isn’t a theory or a guess from someone outside the program. It’s something that has been said privately numerous times in recent months by people who would know. Parents of players. Administrators. Support staff.

For a coach who came to Tallahassee preaching “toughness, effort and discipline,” Fisher somehow lost his way toward the end of his tenure.

If you don't believe that, take a moment to recall some of the things we heard him say publicly last season.

Think back to the way he defended his players after the Boston College debacle, calling out fans and media members who dared suggest that the Seminoles had not competed in that game. That they had quit when things went south.

By not owning up to that fact, Fisher essentially was giving the players -- and his assistant coaches -- a tacit assurance that they would not be held accountable for that type of performance. That their lack of effort and preparation, which was apparent to everyone watching, was somehow OK.

Fisher made the same mistake when quarterback Deondre Francois no-showed the Delaware State game in November. When Fisher was asked about Francois’ absence the following Monday, he said it was up to “player’s discretion” whether to come to a game when they are injured.

Come again?

That sounded crazy to you and me and every single other person who heard it at the time, and yet Fisher stood by it. And I think I understand why he said it -- he didn’t want to admit to the media that he had a discipline problem in his program, and he probably didn’t want to air Francois’ dirty laundry in public.

But still … publicly defending indefensible actions doesn’t do anyone any good.

Of course, neither of those statements wins the ribbon for Most Damaging Public Comment by Fisher in 2017. No, that distinction goes to his bizarre suggestion that the Seminoles’ draft-eligible players should start trying to impress NFL scouts in the final weeks of the regular season.

That came in response to linebacker Jacob Pugh criticizing teammates for caring more about their NFL futures than the Seminoles’ season. Instead of backing up Pugh’s assertion -- or, heck, disputing it -- Fisher basically took an approach that is contrary to everything team sports are supposed to embody. He said the players could actually HELP the team by putting their individual goals first.

On what planet?

I broached this subject with a former Florida State coach recently -- a coach who had previously held Fisher in high regard -- and he said Fisher's “play for the NFL” comment was one of the worst public statements he had ever heard from a college coach.