After one season at Oregon in 2017, Willie Taggart left Eugene in December to become the new head coach at Florida State.
Taggart was vocal about the opportunity with the Seminoles being a dream come true, as a kid in Florida he grew up a Seminoles fan. However, facing a significant rebuild in a variety of areas and inheriting a situation where they were on the brink of a bowl ban with one of the worst APR rates in college football, Taggart was let go after a 4-5 start in his second season in Tallahassee.
His deal with the Seminoles called for a buyout of about $17 million, and they were also on the hook for over $4 million from his Oregon buyout as well.
Shortly after his dismissal, Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times shared that the two sides had never finalized a formal contract and were operating on the initial letter of agreement. That signature detail had the potential to make the buyout situation a bit tricky.
Now, after digging through some depositions in a lawsuit not directly related to Taggart's dismissal, Baker has uncovered some interesting information as to why a contract was never finalized with the former head coach.
In a thread of a few tweets this morning, Baker shares that the first obstacle was due to a new excise tax being instituted as part of some tax reforms under Donald Trump, who signed it into law just over two weeks after Taggart was named head coach.
Another reason for the absent Taggart signature, according to former Florida State athletic director Stan Wilcox, was a buyout that equaled 85% of his remaining contract if fired without cause (subject to duty to mitigate) and some frustration from FSU's legal counsel with agent Jimmy Sexton. Of course, Sexton represents a number of high profile coaches in the industry and is highly respected.
Ultimately, Taggart did end up signing two proposed contracts with the school. One was right after their loss to Boise State to open the 2019 season, and the second was about ten days after their loss to Wake Forest which dropped their overall record to 3-3 and when chatter of his job security really started to pick up steam.
The decision was ultimately made by current AD David Coburn to make a head coaching change just after second proposed deal was signed by Taggart. However, it was shared in the depositions by Coburn that "given where we were in the season, I saw no reason to sign" the deal and added that "I was in considerable doubt as to how long I was going to be able to retain [Taggart]."
Interestingly enough, Baker's research also uncovered that while looking for a new offensive coordinator after year 1 with the school in a search that ultimately led to the hire of Kendal Briles, Taggart also considered hiring Hugh Freeze, who accepted the Liberty head coaching job in October of 2018.
Taggart is now entering his second season as the head coach at FAU, looking to build on a 5-4 initial campaign in 2020 where they finished 2nd in the C-USA East.
Below is the thread from Baker.
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