Oregon Hires Willie Taggart To Be Next Football Coach

The University of Oregon has hired South Florida's Willie Taggart to be its next football coach, the school confirmed, forgoing a nationally proven splash hire in favor of a coach who has had success in the mid-major ranks but never at the top level of college football.

At South Florida this year, his fourth season in Tampa, Taggart led the Bulls to a 10-2 record and a berth in the Birmingham Bowl. His teams progressed every year, going from a 2-10 inaugural campaign when he took over in 2013 to 2016's 10-win season, which included victories over No. 22 Navy and Memphis.

Before South Florida, he coached at Western Kentucky, where he turned a historically doormat program into a bowl-game contender. He will be officially introduced at a Thursday press conference.

Taggart, 40, inherits an Oregon program with much higher aspirations than either of his previous two stops.

The Ducks fired fourth-year coach Mark Helfrich at the end of a dismal 4-8 2016 season that included losses to Washington State, Cal and Oregon State. The year was a far cry from the national championship-caliber program he inherited from his predecessor Chip Kelly (who, it should be noted, was quick to take his name out of the running for Helfrich's replacement) and that Helfrich sustained his first two years as coach before things turned south.

After a Rose Bowl appearance in Helfrich's first season and an appearance in the College Football Playoff and national championship game the next year, the Ducks went just 15-14 over the next two seasons.

It's unclear how much money Oregon will be paying Taggart initially, but it's unlikely to be the $10 million Nike CEO Phil Knight was reportedly willing to pony up to land a marquee football coach. Taggart was paid $1.7 million this season by South Florida, according to USA Today's database of coaching salaries.

Image: Another Believer, used under Creative Commons