For better or worse (mostly the latter), Florida State football’s official Twitter account has, in the form of a hashtag, latched onto the “do something” mantra Willie Taggart brought with him from Oregon. Unfortunately for all involved, the Seminoles haven’t done much of anything the first three games of Taggart’s tenure in Tallahassee.
It’s Week 3 and it’s already rock-bottom for FSU as the visiting Seminoles were thoroughly embarrassed in a 30-7 loss to Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. The win was Syracuse’s first over FSU since November of 1966. Prior to today, the Orange had lost 10 in a row to the Seminoles.
It’s also the first time Syracuse has started a season 3-0 since the 2015 team that went on to lose eight straight immediately afterward.
The ‘Noles were completely outplayed on both sides of the line, especially offensively. Starting quarterback Deondre Francois (18-36, 178 yards, one interception) was harassed throughout the contest, while they managed a meager 39 yards on 18 carries.
Conversely, Syracuse accumulated 220 yards on the ground.
FSU began the Taggart era with an embarrassing 21-point loss to Virginia Tech Labor Day night. They followed that up with an equally embarrassing 10-point win over Samford, one in which they trailed at various points by scores of 13-0, 16-7 and 23-14.
Taggart was expected to bring a potent offense to Tallahassee; that hasn’t happened thus far as the Seminoles have scored just one touchdown in their first two ACC games of the season. It’s the first time since 2011 FSU has started conference play, incidentally; two years later, they won the national championship. So they have that going for them. Which is nice.
While there’s already some grumbling and grousing coming from Seminole Nation, Taggart’s not going anywhere anytime soon as his contract contains a buyout in excess of $20 million. Given the expectations inside and outside of the program, however, he’d better turn things around sooner rather than later as that leash will only continue to shorten the worse the record gets.