Willie Taggart drove 64 miles to get Popeyes because it’s that damn good

Finally, some good news out of Oregon. For the first time in his coaching career, head coach Willie Taggart is farther than a 10-minute drive from a Popeyes restaurant. And on Friday, he made the best of a bad situation.

During his time at Western Kentucky, there was one on campus just .3 miles from the football stadium. The current distance between man and chicken is a fate that should not be wished upon any red-blooded American. But here we are in 2017 with folks having to trek for this food.

There are 10 Popeyes locations in the state of Oregon, but almost all of them are in the Portland metro area. Eugene’s about a two-hour drive from Portland, but right in the middle is a crispy poultry oasis up I-5.

For the uninitiated (and I can’t believe there are still those who are uninitiated), yes, Popeyes is worth the drive. We told you why last month that despite its flaws, Popeyes is perfectly imperfect, and that is a scientific fact:

You place an order. At most other restaurants, you would wait for the food. This is not the case at Popeyes. The order, having been placed into their system, is now reviewed by a central computer housed somewhere above flood level in the New Orleans suburbs. It’s probably in Metairie. Metairie feels like the right place to put a giant supercomputer dedicated to rectifying incorrectly arranged fried chicken orders.

I stand with Willie Taggart and his pursuit of Popeyes. I hope you got spicy, coach, and I hope you didn’t have to wait too long either.