College football: FSU's Willie Taggart talks about Gulf Coast Offense during Naples trip

 

First-year Florida State coach Willie Taggart, who was in Naples on Monday, is changing lots of things for the Seminoles. But the biggest change will be the move to the Gulf Coast Offense.

After an aggravating and offensively anemic 2-10 season back in 2014, South Florida running backs D'Ernest Johnson, a freshman from Immokalee, and Marlon Mack, a sophomore from Sarasota-Booker, rushed to first-year coach Willie Taggart.

So did others.

They told Taggart that they thought the Bulls could do lots more from a spread offense like their high school coaches ran.

Taggart listened. He and his assistants came up with the Gulf Coast Offense, a run/pass option (that even has a moniker now, RPO) that features lots of decisions and rushes by the quarterback and misdirection plays intended to get cat-quick athletes free in the open field and to keep defenses from stacking the line. There almost never is a huddle and the Wildcat is sometimes employed.

Something unique: Taggart combined it with the power-blocking schemes he learned from coach Jack Harbaugh at Western Kentucky.

Taggart, 41, was at Quail Creek Country Club for a Seminole Club of Naples fundraising event on Monday.

Taggart wants his team to learn from FSU greats

"Our guys made a statement toward, 'This is what we need to do,' and then after that (2014) season, I said, 'I'm going to do it; I'm going to commit to doing it,'" Taggart said. "We had the players in place to do those things. We went out and studied some teams and decided, 'OK, we're going to put this together how we want to. We understand the tempo and what people are doing and we're going to do it our way.'

"After about the fourth ballgame (USF started 2-2 in 2015) is where we just kind of let them loose, let them go and everything took off for us from there."

In 2014, USF had averaged a paltry 304.7 yards. In 2015 the Bulls averaged 441.6 (247.3 pass, 194.3 run) and they increased that to 512.0 (285.8, 226.2) in 2016. Not coincidentally, USF went 7-5 in both those seasons before Taggart coached Oregon to a 7-5 mark last season.

“He made sure he utilized everyone’s skill set,” Johnson told Noles 24/7. “He made sure he did that. He put an offense based around the guys he had.”

First-year Florida State coach Willie Taggart talks to sophomore wide receiver DJ Matthews during the spring game.

It's not normal for a head coach to do what many considered an about-face with his offense. But Taggart said the changes weren't at all total.

"Everyone says, 'Coach I applaud you for totally switching; most coaches don't do that,'" Taggart said. "I didn't totally switch. I'm still running the football. Still running the power. Still running the isos (isolations). Still doing some of those things. We're just doing it from a different formation and how we go about getting into it. The operation for what we're doing is a little different with the tempo part of it, but the foundation from what I believe in and what I was brought up on is running the football. And we're still doing those things."

At Florida State -- where Taggart was announced on Dec. 5 as the man to take over for Jimbo Fisher, who left for Texas A&M -- the former Western Kentucky four-year starting option quarterback obviously has speed and athleticism to burn. There will be no going back to Fisher's very slow-paced, pro-style attack that bottomed out last season as the Seminoles limped in at 7-6. FSU averaged just 351.9 total yards and was 71st nationally with just 27.8 points per game.

Taggart has another name for his Gulf Coast Offense from which Mack became a first-round draft pick last year and Johnson became USF's all-time all-purpose yards leader (4,186) and all-time best running back receiver and attended the New Orleans Saints rookie camp.

Lethal Simplicity, he calls it. Johnson excelled in it. 

"D'Ernest was big-time because he can do everything," Taggart said. "He was a pass blocker and he could pass the ball, too. He was by far our best pass-catching back on our football team. He made a lot of big-time plays for us when we needed it because he was that talented. He was a big part of what we did. He made our offense go." 

NFL: Immokalee's Johnson goes to Saints

In front of a record crowd of 53,974 at Doak Campbell Stadium in the spring game on April 14, the Seminoles put up a combined 44 points and ran 43 first-quarter plays in their first Gulf Coast Offense dress rehearsal. Heck, most snaps came with 30 seconds left on the play clock. They got touchdowns on passes from a running back and wide receiver.

They managed that despite a rash of injuries, particularly across the offensive line.

"It's doing well," Taggart said of his Gulf Coast Offense. "I thought our guys picked up on it well. I hear people say, 'The offensive line (was problematic),' but you didn't see five starters playing with each other. It was separate teams. We showed a lot because, for me, if a guy can get it done when they're not with the first-team guys that says they can do a lot better with guys on their level. So I was impressed to see our guys get done what they needed to in their spring game."

It doesn't really matter who starts at quarterback. Former starter Deondre Francois is a junior who had a knee torn up after the first game. Francis has tons of talent, but has had off-the-field troubles -- domestic dispute with his girlfriend, and a charge of marijuana possession last month. Now-sophomore James Blackman took over last season and he had a very sold spring game.

"They all bring different things, but they all can run (the Gulf Coast Offense)," Taggart said. "You don't have to be a certain type of quarterback to run our system. You can be a pro-style or a dual-threat. We're going to utilize whatever you do best. All those guys are capable of getting the job for our football team.

"But what we're looking for is someone that's going to be a leader of our football team. Not just me, but guys that can get their teammates to play for them. That's what it takes to play for a national championship. And I think when you see national championship teams, guys are playing their tails off for that guy at that position. And we need that."

Taggart excited to see FSU's QB competition

There will be playmakers aplenty when the Seminoles return to practice next month. Sophomore running back Cam Akers (930 yards, seven TDs last season), senior receiver Nyquan Murray (40 catches; 15.1-yard average, four TDs), sophomore wideout  D.J. Matthews (TD pass in spring game) and 6-foot-4, 200-pound redshirt freshman receiver Tamorrison Terry ooze with potential.

"We have athletic ability in the receiver and running back and tight end positions and we've got guys up front who can get it done, too," Taggart said. "So I think we've got the pieces. Now it's a matter of us putting it all together and getting our players to understand exactly what we're trying to do on the offensive side of the ball."

North Fort Myers High grad Zaquandre White, a redshirt freshman running back, could have a bright future with Taggart and the Gulf Coast Offense despite the four-star recruit being booked along with defensive back Kyle Meyers on a charge of possession of marijuana due to allegedly being seen passing a joint in a school parking lot by a Tallahassee policeman in January.

"Athletically he's really talented," Taggart said. "He can do a lot of things with a football in his hand. He's constantly being evaluated and he's growing up. The process is some guys grow up quicker than others and he's one of those guys who is slowly but surely growing up and doing the things that we need him to.

"And I think if he keeps doing those things, he can be a big-time player for us."