Florida State University Athletics
‘Tribe 18’ Aims To Be Taggart’s Building Blocks
2/19/2019 4:55:46 PM | Football
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Some came from across town, others from as far away as California and Washington.
Some were in the fold for years, others were added in the 11th hour.
There are dozens of little differences spread throughout Florida State’s rising sophomores and redshirt freshmen, but they’re all united under one big banner as coach Willie Taggart’s first ever signing class in Tallahassee.
Or, as they like to put it:
“We’re ‘Tribe 18,’” defensive back Jaiden Lars-Woodbey said. “That’s what we call ourselves.”
As Taggart enters Year 2 in Tallahassee, shifting Florida State’s football culture remains a top priority and, to a man, the six members of “Tribe 18” who met reporters for the first time on Monday see themselves as agents of that change.
The Seminoles went 5-7 a year ago and missed out on a bowl game for the first time in 36 years, a painful reminder that the road to the top of the college football mountain can be both winding and uphill.
Several members of that team are no longer in the program, whether due to graduation, early draft entry or other forms of attrition.
The ones that remain, however, are undeterred by a challenging year.
“I wouldn’t trade my freshman season for any other freshman season,” tight end Camren McDonald said.
“Sad to say we messed up the bowl streak last year,” cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. added. “We’re going to get it back.”
Samuel’s classmates all share his confidence, and for a few reasons.
For one, they all know how things looked and felt six months ago when the Seminoles finished with their first losing record in 40 years.
Which means that they can clearly see the differences between then and now.
It’s apparent in the way the team manages seemingly mundane responsibilities – McDonald says the team is doing a much better job of keeping its locker room clean – and it’s apparent in the way the players have taken it upon themselves to hold each other to high standards.
Tre’Shaun Harrison, a receiver from Seattle, said that the team has split into accountability groups to ensure that everyone is making it to classes on time and keeping their grades up while managing all of their football responsibilities, too.
“To be everywhere on time,” he said. “Not to miss anything.”
But the team’s shift is perhaps most obvious on the Dunlap Practice Fields, where the Seminoles have gathered before dawn each morning since the beginning of last week for “The Chase” offseason conditioning.
“Going through ‘The Chase,’ you get a feeling (that) something is coming together,” McDonald said. “Things are becoming more cohesive, and we’re becoming more of a team unit. …
“You go to sleep the night before dreading having to wake up, but then once you do it, and you’re out there going hard with your teammates, it feels great.”
Added Lars-Woodbey: “I feel like a lot more people are living up to their name and doing some of the things they were supposed to do when they got here. It gives you chills just thinking about it, the difference from last year to this year and how much more determined and disciplined we are.”
Beyond any recent developments, though, the members of “Tribe 18” are also confident in the man who brought them here.
It’s why players such as Samuel, cornerback A.J. Lytton and linebacker Amari Gainer signed with Florida State despite committing to a previous coaching staff months before Taggart took over.
And it’s why the likes of Lars-Woodbey, McDonald and Harrison traveled four time zones to play for Taggart, despite passing up dozens of scholarship offers from schools between the west coast and Tallahassee.
In Lars-Woodbey’s case, all it took was a last-minute offer – almost literally – to spurn interest from Ohio State, Southern California and Auburn.
He first made contact with FSU in mid-December 2017, just days before signing with the Seminoles.
“Honestly, it was a breath of fresh air,” Lars-Woodbey said. “My parents, they both loved (Taggart) when they got up here. They both loved everything that he was talking about and they loved the opportunity that I had when I got here. The standard is always going to be excellence here, so I’m going to carry on.”
The same goes for Harrison, who was initially a Taggart target during Taggart’s tenure at Oregon.
Of course, traveling 280 miles from Seattle to Eugene, Ore., for school is one thing. But going the full 3,000 miles to Tallahassee is something else entirely.
For Harrison, though, it was no issue.
“Just my faith that I had in Coach Taggart and the coaching staff that he had here,” Harrison said. “… He’s been like a mentor to everyone. He talks to everyone on the team and encourages everyone.”
Their first years now behind them, the players of “Tribe 18” are now focused on rewarding Taggart’s faith in them.
While paying all proper respect to Florida State’s upperclassmen, the rising sophomores are also well aware of their status as Taggart’s first batch of signees.
Those players and their coach will always be linked together.
“The ‘Tribe 18’ class talks about that all the time, about how we’re the building blocks for Coach T’s program,” McDonald said. “Everything is going to start and stop with us. The guys that came before us are just as influential as us, but the ‘Tribe 18’ class really feels like we’re going to be the guys that do it, because we’re Coach Taggart’s first recruits and we’re the guys that he brought in first to shift the culture.
“We take a lot of pride and a lot of responsibility in regards to that.”
Perhaps no one more so than receiver Keyshawn Helton.
A 5-foot-9, 162-pound receiver from Pensacola, Helton had exactly zero major scholarship offers before Taggart discovered him while recruiting at another area school.
Helton on Monday morning called Taggart his “hero,” and said that he and his family sat in Taggart’s office and cried tears of joy when Taggart extended a Florida State scholarship offer.
“The culture here is great,” Helton said. “Coach Taggart came in and he’s changing things. And this is a culture that’s living up to what all y’all expect. … Everyone in ‘Tribe 18’ that Coach Taggart signed are great players and, even better, great people.”
All that’s left is to produce great results.
No surprise, “Tribe 18” believes those will be here sooner rather than later.
“We all have the same mindset and same goals,” Lars-Woodbey said. “We all have the same mindset of getting a degree, getting drafted and winning a championship. …
“I feel like this class is going to have a lot do with the outcome of this season.”