Warchant Roundtable: Grading the Taggart hire; Fisher's ugly exit; more

As the dust begins to settle on the departure of Jimbo Fisher and the hiring of new head coach Willie Taggart, the Warchant Roundtable convenes to discuss five big questions surrounding the entire situation. Participating in this edition of the Roundtable are Warchant publisher Gene Williams, managing editor Ira Schoffel and senior writer Corey Clark.

Q: On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the Willie Taggart hire and why?

Gene: All things considered, I would rate the Taggart hire an 8. Keep in mind, schools almost never make a "perfect 10" hire, and very few land their first choice. So Florida State was extremely fortunate to reel in Taggart in just a matter of days after Jimbo Fisher’s departure.

And for the most part, Taggart checks all the boxes Florida State wanted in its head coach.

* Recruiting – check

* Florida ties – check

* Bring excitement and energy to program – check

* Runs a system compatible with talent - check

* Florida State connections – check (was a fan growing up)

* Head coaching experience – check (eight years)

Really, the only question mark is experience. Is a 41-year-old with one year of experience coaching at a Power 5 school fully prepared to run one of the nation’s top football programs? His short stint at Oregon certainly helps, but running the show at Florida State is a whole different ballgame. It seems like he has the necessary qualities to guide a ship the size of FSU, but frankly Taggart will be navigating uncharted waters. Everywhere he’s been to date has been a reclamation project. This time around he’s being asked to jump start a program stockpiled with elite talent on one of the biggest stages in college football. I think he’s up to the task, but only time will tell.

Corey: An 8.8. I guess for our purposes, I'll go ahead and round it up to a 9. I just think he's a great fit for this program. Especially on the heels of Jimbo Fisher. He's already proven to be a great recruiter. And as Fisher proved, a great recruiter at a place like Florida State can be really, really scary. I think Taggart is going to load up this roster with great talent. Can he develop it? We'll see. But the most important thing is getting the talent here, and he'll be able to do that on a 2011-2012 Jimbo level, in my opinion.

I also think one of the most intriguing aspects of Taggart's career so far is how he has proven he can BUILD a winner. He turned an awful Western Kentucky program into a bowl team. He turned an awful South Florida team into one that just won 19 games in two years. Florida State isn't that far off from being great again. If he can work that kind of turnaround magic in Tallahassee, if he can flip it like he did at those two places, well, it could be a fun stretch for the Seminoles.

Ira: I don't know if I can be as precise as Corey's 8.8, so I'll just go ahead and say a 9 as well. While we can't possibly know if Taggart will end up being one of the truly elite coaches in college football just yet, he was just about a perfect hire for Florida State given the current circumstances.

From talking with parents of some current players and others around the program, it definitely seems like the Seminoles need a fresh approach and a new voice. Taggart certainly brings that. He also checks all of the other important boxes, as Gene pointed out earlier.

What we don't know yet is what type of coaching staff he will surround himself with. At Oregon, he had two former head coaches as his top assistants -- Mario Cristobal on offense and Jim Leavitt on defense. Cristobal is staying on as the Ducks' new head coach, and Oregon is planning to fight FSU for Leavitt's services as well. If Taggart is unable to land either, he'll need to use that $5.5 million salary pool wisely and hire other top assistants with similar levels of experience. Making a jump from USF to Oregon was one thing. Being the head coach at Florida State brings a whole new set of challenges.

Q: What will be Taggart’s three biggest challenges in year one?

Corey: Hmm, I'd say dealing with the ferocious Tallahassee media. Security at his call-in show. And figuring out how to utilize J.J. Cosentino.

I kid because I care. ...

I would say his biggest challenge, by far, is what he's doing right now: Assembling a staff. That's never easy, especially with such a compressed time frame. Recruits want to know who they're going to be playing for, and with two National Signing Days in the next two months, the staff needs to be in place sooner rather than later. The second biggest challenge, in my opinion, is figuring out who his quarterback is. This is a unique situation, having two guys on the roster who have started for an entire year, but that's what Taggart is walking into. Both are capable players, but which one is the best fit for HIS offense. That's what he'll have to figure out.

And finally, the third biggest challenge is to enjoy the gig. There's a lot of pressure at this place. We all get that. But it's also his dream job. If he can keep that same level of excitement and energy that he had at the press conference, if he can truly enjoy where he is and what he's doing, then I think that will not only rub off on the fan base but it will rub off on the players. And they'll play loose and fast and fly around like he wants them, too. But if they see that the coach is tight, and the pressure of FSU is getting to him, then it might affect them in a negative way. So enjoy the job. Have fun.

Ira: Whether you want to call them challenges or opportunities, I think the three big first-year goals for Taggart should be evaluating and reshaping the roster, cultivating the culture he desires, and mending relationships with FSU's donors.

I know most of us assume based on the recruiting rankings that Taggart is walking into a ready-made program filled with blue-chip talent, but the vast majority of the players he will inherit have seen most of their action on an average Florida State football team. Taggart will have to figure out which of those players have the skills needed to fit into his offensive and defensive systems, and he'll also need to evaluate their intangibles -- character, work ethic, leadership, etc. -- to see if he needs to recruit over any of them.

That dovetails with the next opportunity, which is cultivating the type of culture he is looking for. Every coach brings his own set of values and expectations to a program, and Taggart's will likely be similar to Fisher's in some ways and different in others. How quickly he can get FSU's players to buy into his set of beliefs will largely determine how much success he and the team can achieve. While much has been made about Taggart's youthful demeanor and his ability to relate to today's players, a case can be made that the Seminoles also will need him to bring in some stronger discipline and accountability as well.

Finally, Taggart could do the entire program a lot of good if he can mend some relationships with Seminole Boosters. Not just with the leadership team, which sometimes butted heads with Fisher, but with the rank-and-file donors who had been feeling less and less appreciated in recent years. While no one was expecting Fisher to live up to Bobby Bowden's standards when it came to interacting with fans and charming the donors, Fisher ruffled many feathers with his lack of interest in some fundraising endeavors. The sooner Taggart can help FSU's supporters feel warm and fuzzy about the program again, the sooner the Seminoles can accomplish many of the facilities goals they have in the hopper.

Gene: No. 1. Get recruiting back on track – This should be the easiest challenge since this is the part of the job that comes most naturally to him. He’s already making waves on the recruiting trail. While it may too late to turn the 2018 class into a top-five or top-10 group, Taggart needs to at least make it respectable and fill some needs.

No. 2. Put together a top-notch coaching staff – A head coach is only as good as his assistants. Florida State found that out the hard way the last couple seasons. Oregon’s surprising promotion of Mario Cristobal to full-time head coach probably put a wrench in Taggart’s plans. Not only is Cristobal out, but now he may be in a better position to keep most of Taggart’s old staff at Oregon in place, some of whom may have been penciled in to coach at FSU.

No. 3. Make the transition to his system as smooth as possible for his players – Every single player on the roster was signed and practiced with Jimbo Fisher’s system in mind. For offensive players, there will be a major adjustment to Taggart’s Gulf Coast offense, which drastically differs from Fisher’s pro-style scheme both in terms of philosophy and pace. Without knowing who will be the defensive coordinator, it’s unknown how big of an adjustment there will be for the defense, but there will certainly be some changes.