the first is he suckered me. I bought into all his homespun philosophies about integrity and accontability. I thought he was going to walk the walk he talked.
but that's not really what happened is it...I'll lead with what's simple, he flat out lied:
On Friday Willie Taggart was asked point-blank if he or his agent had been contacted by officials at Florida State. His response was flippant.
“Nope,” he said quickly, before adding. “Can we move on now?"
Two days later Taggart was asked similar questions, to which he responded "nothing has changed."
On Tuesday, three hours after Taggart had accepted the aforementioned job to become the Seminoles head coach, Taggart's comments can be called into question. According to the timeline laid out by Oregon Athletic Director Rob Mullens, Taggart first began speaking with FSU officials the day prior to Friday's media availability.
"(Florida State) called me Thursday and let me know they wanted to reach out to him," Mullens told reporters. "(Taggart) called me later Thursday to let me know that they had reached out to him."
https://oregon.247sports.com/Bolt/Oregon-athletic-director-Rob-Mullens-says-Florida-State-reached-out-to-Willie-Taggart-prior-to-Friday-111810032
in other words, when asked a direct question about whether he or his agent were in contact with FSU Taggart chose to lie. Making it worse was that at both press conferences, Taggart was asked if he was going to remain the Oregon coach..his response both times was "why wouldn't I". Somehow, with those 3 words, Taggart was able to be evasive, disingenuous, and condescending, all at the same time. That takes some real talent...or just a strong natural instinct of dishonesty
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it isn't just the media and the fans that have experienced Taggart's slippery behavior. There are plenty of reports that a lot of Duck players were blindsided by Taggart's departure because he had led them to believe even though FSU was his dream job he felt too much of a commitment to them to leave. Reportedly, after Taggart gave a pretty quick speech about taking the FSU job, then hurriedly leaving, plenty of screaming and cursing was heard behind the closed doors where the players were. A lot of anger from feelings of betrayal.
and of course, Oregon's top-rated recruiting class is crumbling. Several commits have de-committed including the #1 player in Washington who said he did so because he couldn't get a straight answer out of Taggart. Another said Taggart promised to call him back and explain, but never called back
several recruits talked about Taggart just coming into their homes and lying to them, two examples:
Chris Randazzo
"I feel blind sided, everyone kept saying it’s all hype and I believed them and now that it’s official, I’m sick to my stomach. Coach Taggart just sat in my house last Friday and sold the Ducks to me and then leaves like that? It’s just sickening. I still love Oregon and the rest of the coaches up there so I'm going to stay solid until I see who is hired but a lot of other schools have already been hitting me up."
Travis Dye
"This is really disappointing," Dye's father Mark said. "He (Taggart) came in to our home Friday and was adamant that the rumors were nonsense, he hadn't talked to anyone at FSU and said not to listen to any of them. He even brought it up, not us, he didn't even need to talk about it. In hindsight, I guess he wasn't lying, it was all through his agent but this just kills us because Travis was planning to sign early and graduate early, now that's up in the air."
there are other similar responses. There was also the father of one of Oregon's true freshmen from Florida who was incensed at Taggart because he believed that Taggart not only lied to him last year while recruiting his son, but also lied to him in a conversation a couple of weeks ago
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lastly, I've been seeing some Taggart apologists try and shine up the turd of his departure. they talk a lot about FSU being Taggart's dream job and how he needed to look after his family's financial security. Oh, and the corker is when they talk about how "torn" he was about this decision
I have some things to say about that...now, maybe I'm just being petty...I'm open to that possibility
but I look at it this way: Taggart had two choices. Either choice offered him financial security, although if my math is right Taggart has already made 12-15 million dollars over the last 8 years. I have to say, if he hasn't already coaxed financial security out of that, he's a moron
anyway, 2 choices, both of them jobs as the head coach of two different major college football programs. Both offering him at least 20 million guaranteed dollars over the next 5 years. Frankly, I don't give a **** how torn he was facing that kind of dilemma. There's no losing with that kind of choice
and I get it, one choice was to coach the team that was his boyhood dream job. That's quite an opportunity. But to choose that option he would be choosing a path of low integrity; he would be choosing to damage his current program, and current employer. The one that gave him his first opportunity to head a major college team. Instead of saying to himself that it was just his bad luck that his dream job opened up less then 12 months after he took the Oregon job, he chose to make that Oregon's bad luck instead. That's not a choice of principle, it's one of self-interest at the price of principle. The man who preached accountability and sacrifice to his players failed the test of accountability when it required some sacrifice of his own
so spare me the lectures about how I should wish Taggart well and forgive him for the evasive and disingenuous way he conducted himself over the last 5 days, and as it turns out, even longer. I'm not buying it. Now again, maybe that's me being petulant and petty, but I know for certain at this point I don't have any sympathy to lend to Taggart
Changed an altered word that was meant to get around the language filter. - TSE.
