Willie Taggart
Followed Lane Kiffin. Willie Taggart slid Florida Atlantic from Regional Program I to Regional Program II in 3 seasons.
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Blue Blood in his 9th career season — faster than 24% of the 100 FBS coaches who have ever reached Blue Blood (rank #75 of 100 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
3–7 against his rivals. Just 1–4 against Rick Stockstill.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
2nd-best Florida Atlantic tenure of 9 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and outperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Lane Kiffin (2017–2019) · succeeded by Tom Herman (2023–2024).
| Season | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||
| Record | 5–4 | 5–7 | 5–7 | |
| Postseason | L bowl | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | #73 | #82 | #120 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||
| Pass rate | 39.2 | 46.2 | 43.4 | |
| Coordinators | ||||
| OC | Clint Trickett / Drew Mehringer | Mike Johnson | Brent Dearmon | |
| DC | Jim Leavitt | Mike Stoops | Todd Orlando | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||
| Offense | 33 | 29 | 61 | |
| Defense | 89 | 59 | 49 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||
| 1st-down pass% | 33.9 | 42.3 | 36.3 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 34.4 | 44.2 | 36.5 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 50.0 | 33.3 | 38.2 | |
A typical amount of portal roster-building.
Typical size for position, once adjusted for position mix.
Recruits younger transfers than most — more of a development bet.
1 NFL Draft pick: Harrison Bryant (2020)
4th-best Florida State tenure of 10 by the numbers.
Underperforms his recruiting talent on offense and performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Jimbo Fisher (2010–2017) · succeeded by Mike Norvell (2020–2026).
| Season | 2018 | 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||
| Record | 5–7 | 4–5 | |
| Postseason | — | CFP loss | |
| Recruiting rank | #11 | #19 | |
| Style — pass rate | |||
| Pass rate | 53.7 | 47.5 | |
| Coordinators | |||
| OC | Walt Bell | Kendal Briles | |
| DC | Harlon Barnett | Harlon Barnett | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||
| Offense | 21 | 60 | |
| Defense | 64 | 77 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | |||
| 1st-down pass% | 44.7 | 46.5 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 47.0 | 33.7 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 37.9 | 38.2 | |
9 NFL Draft picks: Derwin James (2018), Derrick Nnadi (2018), Rick Leonard (2018), Josh Sweat (2018), Ryan Izzo (2018), Auden Tate (2018), Brian Burns (2019), Demarcus Christmas (2019) + 1 more
4th-best Oregon tenure of 16 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and outperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Mark Helfrich (2013–2016) · succeeded by Mario Cristobal (2018–2021).
2 NFL Draft picks: Royce Freeman (2018), Tyrell Crosby (2018)
4th-best South Florida tenure of 9 by the numbers.
Outperforms his recruiting talent on offense and performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Skip Holtz (2010–2012) · succeeded by Charlie Strong (2017–2019).
| Season | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||
| Record | 2–10 | 4–8 | 8–5 | 10–2 | |
| Postseason | — | — | L bowl | W CFP | |
| Recruiting rank | — | #42 | #66 | #66 | |
| Style — pass rate | |||||
| Pass rate | — | 49.2 | 33.7 | 38.6 | |
| Coordinators | |||||
| OC | — | Paul Wulff | Danny Hope / David Reaves | T. J. Weist / Darren Hiller | |
| DC | — | Chuck Bresnahan | Tom Allen | Raymond Woodie Jr. | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||
| Offense | — | 8 | 83 | 93 | |
| Defense | — | 46 | 72 | 31 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | |||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | 39.1 | 27.7 | 38.6 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | 34.9 | 30.5 | 24.4 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | 34.2 | 34.2 | 37.5 | |
9 NFL Draft picks: Kayvon Webster (2013), Samuel Barrington (2013), B.J. Daniels (2013), Aaron Lynch (2014), Reshard Cliett (2015), Austin Reiter (2015), Marlon Mack (2017), Rodney Adams (2017) + 1 more
6th-best Western Kentucky tenure of 6 by the numbers.
Followed David Elson (2007–2009) · succeeded by Bobby Petrino (2013–2018).
1 NFL Draft pick: Quanterus Smith (2013)