Florida State University Athletics
Coaches Share Their Stories: Defense/Special Teams
9/1/2018 12:00:07 PM | Football
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Some have been with Willie Taggart for years. Others will be sharing a sideline with him for the first time this fall. But every member of Florida State’s coaching staff has a unique story of how they came to know Taggart, how they got to Florida State and what it means to be in Tallahassee.
Here are the defensive and special teams coaches, in their own words:
Previous stops with Willie Taggart: None
Barnett: “That night, after the (2017 Holiday Bowl), I get a text from Coach [Raymond] Woodie. That was the one guy I knew on Coach Taggart’s staff from when he was a head high school coach in Palmetto, (Fla.). I used to recruit down there, and we had a relationship that way.
“He texted me: ‘Call me. Important.’ I’ve still got it on my phone, I’m never going to erase it – ‘Call me, important.’
“I’m like, ‘Man, he didn’t even congratulate us on the win! We won — Forget it, whatever. (Laughter) This is late at night. This is like midnight. I was out there in San Diego, Pacific time, and the game was a night game. …
“So the next day, we’re set to fly out. We’re actually on the tarmac getting on the plane and my wife and I get on the plane, and I get the same text from Coach Woodie: ‘Call me, important.’
“So I called him and I said, ‘What’s going on?’
(Woodie says) ‘Hey, man, Coach Taggart would like to know if you would like to interview for the Florida State defensive coordinator job.’
“(I was like), ‘What?’ … We went from 3-9 to 10-3 (at Michigan State) and we were about to have 10 days off. I’m about to go home and relax, and now it’s back into, ‘Whoa, OK.’
“I said, ‘Hey, can you have Coach Taggart just call me tomorrow after 10 a.m.?’ Let me sleep in a little bit.
“Sure enough, Coach Taggart called me the next day. I said, ‘Yeah, I want to come down to interview.’
“I did so, and on his way driving me back to the airport, Coach Taggart kind of nonchalantly just said, ‘Well, hey, what we can do for you is this and this.’ And I’m like, ‘Is he offering me the job? I think he is.’ It went from there.
“I always told (Michigan State) Coach [Mark] Dantonio that I would keep him informed every step of the way. I think that’s the right thing to do. Not that I had to do it, but I think it’s the right thing to do. And I told him what was going on and I went back and met with him.
“My wife and I talked about it and then I said, ‘Well, I’ll have a decision the next day.’
“And that night, I wrestled on it. I’m a spiritual person, so I’m praying on it, (hearing) nothing, nothing, nothing.
“I wake up the next morning, and I’m like, ‘Wow, this is tough.’
“So as I was getting out of the shower the next morning, right before I was going to make the call, I was reminded of something. I felt that God had spoken to me the year before – and I only told my wife this at this time – and this is how I made my decision.
“He said, ‘This (2017) is going to be your last year at Michigan State.’ And that brought back my remembrance. And that’s how I made my decision.
“And so I had to let everybody know. Coach Taggart was fired up. He wouldn’t even let me call him. I said, ‘I’ll call you back and let you know’ — He called me first.
“I’m like, Hey, Coach.’ I told him, ‘I’m coming,’ and he was fired up. I was fired up.”
Previous stops with Willie Taggart: None.
Haggins: “I love these guys. It is so much fun. They’re great guys.”
(Haggins was asked in December about Taggart’s decision to retain him. The following are his comments from then.)
“I am a Seminole for life. I’m thankful to Coach Taggart for giving me the opportunity to remain at my alma mater and am excited to be at Florida State University. It has been an incredible blessing to coach at the school I played at and have been coaching at most of my life. Coach Taggart and I are on the same page with our focus on doing the best we can to be a mentor and a father figure to these student-athletes. Everything we do is to help guide them as they develop on and off the field. …”
“It’s a blessing. That’s what I always preach to these young men. Coming to Florida State is different. I played here five years. Coached here 23 years. … We have a special bond here at Florida State University. We love each other.”
Previous stops with Willie Taggart: None.
(Note: Snyder has not coached with Taggart before, but he did serve on staff with Harlon Barnett at Michigan State. He was asked about his relationship with Barnett and his decision to follow Barnett to Tallahassee.)
“I think the players know that (Barnett) cares about them. He’s very energetic. Very enthusiastic. And he knows this defense inside and out. And I think that just bleeds through his pores, and the kids see it.
“(When Taggart offered the job) I talked to my family, then went back and talked to (Michigan State) coach (Mark) Dantonio and made the decision I thought was best for our family. My 17-year-old wants to come to school at Florida State. She wants to come to college here. So she was like, ‘Go, Daddy.’ That made it pretty easy for me. Because I did want to come.”
Previous stops with Willie Taggart: Western Kentucky (defensive ends, 2010-11; linebackers, 2012); South Florida (linebackers, 2013-15; defensive coordinator, 2016); Oregon (special teams/outside linebackers, 2017)
“Whatever vision Coach Taggart has, it’s up to us to follow. And I guess I’m one of the ones that’s considered a ‘long-range’ (guy) because I was there when he built the (Western Kentucky) program, 0-26, up until now. It’s been great.
(Note: Western Kentucky snapped a 26-game losing streak during Taggart’s first year as head coach.)
“He’s an honest guy. He cares about the student-athletes. He really cares about the kids. It’s not a business for him. He wants the guys to come here and get everything they need out of being a student-athlete. He’s not a closed-door type of coach. His door is wide open and that’s why the kids love him. He’s a players’ coach. And that’s how he has always been. He hasn’t changed since eight years ago, when he got his start as a head football coach.”
Previous stops with Willie Taggart: Western Kentucky (defensive backs, 2011-12); South Florida (defensive backs, 2015; DBs/special teams, 2016); Oregon (defensive analyst, 2017)
“It’s amazing just to watch him grow over the years. I met Coach Taggart in 2006. We did an internship with the Philadelphia Eagles. I was at Arkansas-Pine Bluff and he was (an assistant) at Western Kentucky. And we kind of joked about it … He had a laptop, it was a big one at the time. And I had no laptop because we couldn’t afford it at Arkansas-Pine Bluff. At that moment, we kind of shared our vision with each other and we kind of expressed our thoughts. And we said whoever gets the first job will hire the other person. And lo and behold, he got the Western Kentucky job. The first year, I didn’t go with him. The second year, he called me.
“And so just to watch him grow, watch us grow together as a staff … and to see the vision and all the hard work we put in from Western Kentucky to South Florida to Oregon now to here, it’s a good feeling. But we’re not done. This is the ultimate goal. We always said we wanted to have the same opportunity as everyone else, to be able to go out and recruit the best. And I think when we walk out with the Florida State symbol on our chest, it’s a little different now.
“You can do things with the same work ethic we had, the blue-collar mentality, and bring it to Florida State. So we feel very good about that.”