Taggart: Coaching changes were needed to improve chemistry on staff

Over the last five or six months, Willie Taggart has rattled off a number of reasons why he believes his Florida State football team will be much improved in 2019.

He's pointed to additional experience and talent on the offensive line, improved "competitive depth" at numerous positions on both sides of the ball, better leadership and camaraderie among the players, and the comfort level that comes with being in the second year of a new system.

During recent stops on his spring booster tour, Taggart has offered up another positive factor -- one that he believes might actually be more significant than any of the others. And one that validates rumors that circulated late last season about a lack of cohesion on his offensive coaching staff.

"You talk about changing programs and wanting to be successful, I think it all starts with coaching chemistry," Taggart said during his presentation to the Marion County Seminole Club last week. "If you don't have the chemistry as coaches, it's tough for our players to do the things that we want them to do -- if we don't have that as a staff. So this offseason is really important for me to make sure that we get the coaching chemistry the way that we need it to be."

It was not exactly a well-guarded secret that there were issues on Taggart's first staff at FSU. Just a few days after the 2018 season concluded with a 5-7 record, FSU President John Thrasher told Warchant that he expected staff changes and specifically mentioned the relationships among coaches.

“I think any time you bring in new folks, there’s going to be some chemistry issues and things like that until you get the right mix," Thrasher said at the time. "And I think that’s what Willie’s still going to be working on."

Within days, former offensive coordinator Walt Bell would leave to take the head coaching position at UMass; he would be replaced by Kendal Briles. About six weeks later, wide receivers coach David Kelly was reassigned to make room for new receivers coach Ron Dugans. And a few weeks after that, offensive line coach Greg Frey was dismissed to clear the way for Randy Clements.

Special-teams coordinator Alonzo Hampton also was fired, and the defensive coaching staff was shuffled, with defensive ends coach Mark Snyder taking over special teams and Odell Haggins assuming responsibility for the entire defensive line.

While not all of those changes were related to chemistry issues, Taggart made it clear when he spoke with reporters during his booster stop in Miami last Friday that some of them definitely were. He said he identified that as a major problem area when he evaluated his first season in Tallahassee.

"In order to get our guys going like we want them to go, we had to make sure that our coaching chemistry was where it needed to be," Taggart said. "And our coaching chemistry wasn't there. And if our coaching chemistry wasn't there, it's hard for our team chemistry to be there.