By all accounts, USF made a really good hire by bringing in Willie Taggart to re-energize a football program in seeming free fall. And expectations are that Taggart, a high-energy, classy local guy known as an effective recruiter, can make a difference in a hurry. In three years he took Western Kentucky from a basket case to its first bowl game in history.
Put it this way. Skip Holtz was flying high 15 months ago. Recall that it was just last September that USF went to South Bend, Ind. and upset Notre Dame. Then the Bulls won their next three games. Then went 4-16 the rest of the way and became the worst team in a bad league–and the target of embarrassing criticism that ranged from students to alums to ESPN broadcasters.
Next month, of course, undefeated Notre Dame, that 23-20 loser to USF in September 2011, plays for the national championship.
Things can change in a hurry with the right guy in charge.