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When Oregon fired head coach Mark Helfrich back on November 29th, a main justification for his removal was the Ducks under-performing 4-8 season, that culminated in 34-24 loss to the Beavers in the Civil War. Now, the Ducks have hired their next program leader, who will be tasked with attempting to dethrone the current state champions in Oregon State.
Good luck, trying.
On Wednesday morning, Oregon announced that they have hired the University of South Florida’s Willie Taggart as their new head football coach. Taggart is coming off a 10-2 season with the Bulls, that finished as the best program record in school history and a birth in the Birmingham Bowl against South Carolina. In his four years at the institution, Taggart increased the school’s win total each season. It is rumored that Taggart beat out Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen for the job.
Previous to his time at South Florida, Taggart served as the running backs coach at Stanford from 2007-2009, under current Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, where he worked to develop Doak Walker Award winner, Toby Gerhart. Taggart was also the head coach at Western Kentucky from 2010-2012.