Oregon has hired South Florida head coach Willie Taggart to do the same job in Eugene. It’s a really compelling hire for the Ducks, who fired Mark Helfrich after a 4-8 season in which the team gave up 41.4 points per game — 126th out of 128 FBS teams.
Oregon president says Willie Taggart should ‘go find a great defensive coordinator,’ and he’s right
No matter the subtext, fixing Oregon’s defense has to be an immediate, top priority.
In introducing Taggart at a press conference on Thursday, Oregon university president Michael Schill had a solitary piece of advice for his new coach:
“One bit of advice, which probably everybody in the state of Oregon can give him, is, ‘Go find a great defensive coordinator.’ Now I’ve exhausted my knowledge,” Schill said.
Schill is partially just being self-deprecating and funny, and he’s also making a true point. Hiring a good defensive coordinator should be atop the agenda for any newly arrived head coach, especially one whose background is, like Taggart’s, based on offense. His Bulls scored 44 points per game this year (seventh-best nationally), so offense isn’t likely to be a long-term problem at Oregon.
The Ducks defense this year was truly awful, in Brady Hoke’s first year as the coordinator. But Hoke assumed control of a defense that had just finished No. 116 nationally in average points allowed, and which relied on a dominant, ball-controlling offense the last time it was any good, in 2014. You could hear Schill’s words as a dig at Hoke (or not), but the need for better defensive coaching is an Oregon fact of life.
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