I watched some USF videos on YouTube and coach Taggart seems like real a cool dude. I wish him luck in getting the Ducks back on track. Helfrich's personality always rubbed me the wrong way. If he would have won I'd have gotten over it, but I'm excited to see what Coach Taggart can do with this bunch, and recruiting wise.
I think Taggart can turn Oregon into the third "LA" school recruiting wise. For young black men in the tougher areas of LA Taggart could be a good sell for them AND I would imagine players parents would feel more comfortable with him.
I thought the Ducks already recruited well in So. Cal. With this hire, shouldn't they be essentially adding Florida to their recruiting territory? Hire a defensive coordinator from Texas and they should be set.
Taggart is tryna steal away the #1 QB recruit from Alabama! Taggart headed to Hawaii One of the biggest moves Willie Taggart is making comes on his first day on the job. Sources tell DuckTerritory Coach Taggart is boarding a plane "soon" headed for Hawaii to see Tua Tagovailoa. That "soon" is expected to be this evening. With about 24 hours under his belt as head coach, this is a major statement by Coach Taggart. Tua Tagovailoa has been committed to Alabama since the Spring. But the allure of Oregon has always been an intrigue to Tagovailoa . Can Willie Taggart get the attention of the nation's top-ranked quarterback ?
Taggart targets Charlie Strong Fixing the Oregon defense is one of the highest priorities at Oregon this offseason. So important, even the school's president, Michael Schill, offered one bit of advice to new head coach Willie Taggart during his introduction press conference and it was to find a 'good defensive coordinator' at Oregon. "I just want a really good defense," Taggart said at his press conference when asked what he's going to look for on defense. "I don't care how it looks, I want it to be really good and I want to stop people from scoring touchdowns. Whatever it takes from stopping people, that's what we are going to do." According to 247Sports' Josh Newberg, Taggart is in discussion with former Texas head coach Charlie Strong about becoming Oregon's defensive coordinator. The problem with Strong is that he's currently in Tampa today interviewing with Taggart's old school South Florida about the opening at head coach. Sources of 247Sports.com tell us that Strong is currently debating the head coach vs defensive coordinator path after Texas. He still wants to coach, but a source said he's not sure if he wants everything that comes with being a head coach after what he went through at Texas right now. We can confirm through a different source that should Strong not take the USF head coaching job, two other schools outside of Oregon have offered him a job as defensive coordinator.
Chris wanted to come here when we were still having potential. Have you seen how many recruits have withdrawn over the last couple months? Oregon is on a serious downward spiral at the moment and no top tier coach is gonna wanna jump on that ship so close to following up Chip Kelly. Yes I know we had Mark for four years, but we are still too closely removed from Chip and that legacy to live up to. Its a no win situation for a top tier coach. With that said. I loved Willie's introduction press conference. Dude has some fight in him you can tell. Some pizzazz. Obviously coming from Florida, I know very little about him. What I do know is he is okay with being called Willie rather than William or Will. That's ballsy right there. I like him already. As far as coaching skills? Based off the radio yesterday, he came into a team that had nothing and turned them into a 10 win team for several seasons and he had zero to work with competing with the likes of the larger schools in Florida. Now he has a top notch facility and backing. @Mediocre Man Let me ask you this. What do you think is more important at this point for Oregon... An elite coach with defense/offense, but weak recruiting skills or a decent skills coach with car saleman like recruiting abilities? Obviously bnoth is optimal, but if you had to choose, which do you think is more important for Oregon? at this point in time?
Helf was a shitty recruiter, and we saw where that took Oregon. Then again he was also a poor coach. Players win in football. Recruiting is probably skill 1.a. Howrver, if you don't develop them you lose also.
https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/29216 according to rivals, Alex is the #1 recruit in the state STOMP
The former Duck coaches pulled most of their talent from SoCal. We'll see who WT hires, but hopefully he adds some Assistants with established relationships in California's recruiting hotbeds. Obviously there is not near enough talent in the NW and it's a loooong expensive flight from Florida to Eugene.
Plus, with Washington's momentum, I would think the local youth would prefer them over UofO at the moment.
for some sure, but beating the crap out of UW for most of their lives undoubtably made an impression on many of today's kids rooting interests too. Also some kids prefer a big city while some prefer a small college town. Sometimes a school's academic strengths will be a determining factor & of course one of the most common things sited by kids when they commit is their relationships with the coaches. Though I think both UW and UO will continue to pull talent, UO is going to be way behind with this last factor in this cycle. STOMP
Gotta think he can turn the D around, I expect we can be a 40-60 rank defense next season. Which is a YUGE turnaround.
He's also the guy that got fired from USF fire allegedly choking/slapping a player, and then got a multi-million dollar wrongful termination settlement after, so go ahead and make of those facts what you will.
That he's a hot head who will light a fire under their sorry asses? As long as he doesn't assault someone, sounds like a good hire
I just hope Leavitt can figure out how to stop white wide receivers... Cooper Kupp Britain Covey River Cracraft Nelson Spruce Jordan Westerkamp We made those dudes look like world beaters
