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ACC QUESTION of the WEEK : How encouraged should Florida State fans be with Willie Taggart after the Seminoles’ win over Boston College?
The first thing which has to be said about Florida State’s victory is that the players didn’t quit on the coach. That is undeniably important, and it represents a necessary building block for the Seminoles heading into 2019. Even if they don’t beat Florida to keep the program’s bowl streak alive, this Boston College win is something Willie Taggart can point to in the offseason, whenever the offseason eventually arrives. Players need to encounter moments in which they overcome adversity. This is FSU’s foremost moment of 2018. That means something.
The larger question: How much will it mean in a larger context, balanced against all the other problems, limits and imbalances this program faces?
It’s great that the players are still going to the wall for the coach — that’s not sarcastic, just a plain truth — but with Jimbo Fisher leaving the cupboard bare, Taggart has a lot of holes to fix, and he has to nail the process of getting the players he wants and the culture he wants. For much of this season, Taggart has failed to improve habits and set in place the culture he craves. He has had his positive moments, but a few steps forward have been followed by regressions. The Boston College game is an act of revival and recovery, but the net gains of this season are not — and have not been — substantial. Basic problems, chiefly the inability to line up properly, have persisted far longer than they ought to have lingered this year.
This makes Taggart’s second season much more uncertain than it should have been. One win over Boston College — in which B.C. coach Steve Addazio went full NFL (you NEVER go full NFL!) late in the game with a fourth-down punt — does not change the generally tenuous reality Florida State faces in 2019.
I can’t get past the fact that Taggart has, as his offensive coordinator, Walt Bell, whose credentials are… shall we say, to be charitable… modest. Taggart had Jim Leavitt as his defensive coordinator in 2017 at Oregon. Leavitt is an excellent defensive coordinator, and he would have flourished in Tallahassee, but he chose to stay with Mario Cristobal at Oregon. Taggart does not have the elite coordinators a program such as Florida State ought to have. This is especially true with Bell on offense, but even on defense, one cannot imagine Leavitt playing the soft coverages on third and very long which harmed FSU against Boston College, and almost lost the game.
When we discuss Florida State’s situation, here’s the bottom line: The ACC has been so bad (other than Clemson) that any of several teams could become the second-best team in the conference next season. This is an opportunity for Florida State to rise quickly — that’s the good news. However, it’s also a situation in which the FAILURE to become that second-best team (or third at the absolute worst) will be perceived, rightly, as that much more of a disappointment for Taggart if Florida State is the sixth-best ACC team in 2019. That’s the bad news.
I can’t sit here and tell Florida State fans that I am confident FSU will become that second-best team in the conference next year. Therefore, I can’t say this win over Boston College changes very much — not yet, at any rate.
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