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Published Sep 4, 2019
Taggart clarifies hydration comments before Wednesday practice
Corey Clark  •  TheOsceola
Lead Writer

Willie Taggart doesn't typically meet with the media before Wednesday practices.

But the Florida State head football coach decided to make an exception this week, because he wanted to clarify -- in great detail -- what he said on Monday night about his football team's hydration. The comments, which he believes were misconstrued, went viral late Monday and throughout the day Tuesday.

Taggart explained that he never intended to make excuses about how the Seminoles performed in last Saturday's 36-31 loss to Boise State.

"Some folks insinuated some words that I said and took it a totally different way," Taggart said. "Nowhere in there talked about Boise, about that being an excuse for losing to Boise or anything. It talked about how we were preparing for Louisiana-Monroe."

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Standing before a group of reporters, Taggart read from the actual transcript of the show and recited the question he was asked by Gene Deckerhoff.

As Taggart pointed out, the question Deckerhoff asked was about the upcoming Louisiana-Monroe game on Saturday and how the temperatures are expected to be near 100 degrees for kickoff. So Taggart was asked how the training staff and coaches prepared for that kind of "scorcher" during the week.

*ALSO SEE: Schoffel: FSU Football has some problems; hydration isn't high on list

He then read his exact answer from the show and took umbrage with the fact that his response turned into a local newspaper headline that read: "Willie Taggart doesn't know if FSU players were sufficiently hydrated for Boise State game."

That was quickly picked up by national outlets.

ESPN's headline read: "Taggart: Dehydration possible factor in loss."

It was even on the bottom-line scroll on Tuesday night.

That's how quickly his comments caught fire.

Taggart, who has posted a 5-8 record in his first 13 games at Florida State, saw first-hand how a quote can go viral when you're the head coach at a school like FSU.

"That's part of it," Taggart said. "It goes with the territory. You understand it, but that don't make it right. Again, I don't want anyone to take my words and run with it. I don't think that's right. And when I don't think it's right, and it's bringing a negative light on our program, I want to address it and say exactly what I mean

"Hopefully, people will take it for exactly what I meant and for what I said. And not for what they think I said. That's part of it, and that's what happens when you're not winning. We've got to go win some ball games and people will start saying good things about us."

He also clarified that he wasn't criticizing the medical, athletic training or nutritional staffs at Florida State when he made his Monday comments.

"We have great medical staff people that do a great job with our players ...," he said. "Nothing in that said anything negative. I don't know where that came from. But that is exactly what Coach Taggart said and what I meant."

Then as he walked toward the practice fields, he turned toward the reporters and said, 'Make sure to hydrate!"

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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council

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