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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 29, 2018

Willie Taggart

Greensboro, North Carolina

THE MODERATOR: We're are joined by Florida State coach Willie Taggart.

Coach, if you could please make an opening statement, then we'll open it up for questions.

WILLIE TAGGART: Football season, it's football time, all gas, no brakes now. Really excited about the season. Had a really good training camp. I know our guys are tired of hitting each other, and looking forward to Labor Day night against a really good Virginia Tech team, very well-coached by Justin Fuente, his staff. Should be a really good ballgame.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You are facing a very young Virginia Tech team on Monday. How can you exploit some of that inexperience on their side?
WILLIE TAGGART: Well, I think they can say the same thing, too, looking at our football team, really young football team as well. Really trying to exploit another young team, I think the only thing we can do is go out and try to play the very best we can. That's the challenge of our football team each and every week, is seeing how good we can play. That's going to be a challenge against a well-coached football team.

We got to go on our A game the first game. You don't have a lot of information on what they're doing differently or anything. We got to be ready to adjust, do a good job taking care of the ball.

Q. Specifically Tech is very young in the secondary. Do you want to hit them early?
WILLIE TAGGART: To be totally honest with you, I'm not sure how we're going to attack them. I'm not going to give you that answer, from that standpoint. Just playing with you (laughter).

We're young at receiver, as well. I think you're going to see a lot of young guys on both sides of the ball playing this season. It's hard for me to sit here and say we're going to exploit them here and there because we're both young. It's going to be a good ballgame.

Q. I know by the time you get to game eight, theoretically your team will be better than it is now. In terms of where you'd like your team to be for game one, where do you stand?
WILLIE TAGGART: I love where we're at. Again, we've had a really good training camp. We've had a good off-season, coming together as a team the way I want us to. Now I think the finishing touch is the season where we all go to battle. One thing we haven't done together is go out and play a game. Looking forward to that, see how our guys respond to good and bad things, moving from there.

From everything we worked at, everything we want to be, I think we're right on pace now.

Q. New coach, your quarterback is coming back. Do you feel like your team has made the adjustments and is comfortable with all those situations?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think they are. They bought into everything we asked them to do. Been really working hard to change the culture to the way that we want it. Again, I applaud our guys for all their hard work, the things they've been able to do this off-season. I'm really looking forward to them going out and competing together.

They understand the challenge that's in front of us, too. Really good Virginia Tech football team. It's going to be fun.

Q. Take us through why Deondre is your choice?
WILLIE TAGGART: Just looking at the body of work since we've been here. I will say it was a really tight battle. It was a good battle, good, healthy competition. I think overall when you watched the offense, how it operated, how efficient it goes, I thought our offense worked a lot more efficient when Deondre was in there. He did a great job of taking care of the football, which is the most important thing.

In the short amount of time he's been here, been able to go out and compete, do things. I was really impressed with how much he knew, how he was able to operate our offense.

I think a lot of that just goes with experience. He's played a lot of ball, been around. That helped, as well.

Q. You were asked about a Virginia Tech young team. In terms of that matchup, what have you seen from the development of your receivers, how good do you feel about that group right now?
WILLIE TAGGART: They're all talented young men. Big reason we recruited them, we feel they can play. I like where they're at. There's going to be some growing pains, but I also think guys are going to make some plays that we're all going to like.

If they're young, only way to get experience is going out and playing a little bit. We're looking forward to those guys going out and playing the way they're capable of.

Q. You've talked about how this is your dream job. Now that the season is about to start, could you describe how the reality of the job compares to the way it was in your dreams.
WILLIE TAGGART: I'll tell you what, it's just like I thought it would be. Everything has been exactly how I thought it would be. When I came here, the passion, the love everyone has for Florida State University here. I know Monday night is going to be fun. We'll have a lot of emotions. Can't really tell you how it will be. I'll let you know afterwards.

I just want to make sure when I run out of the tunnel I don't trip and fall. Got to look like an athlete.

Q. A lot of people talking about the black uniforms. What was the decision behind that?
WILLIE TAGGART: Well, we have the Unity Council, which is the voice of our team, consists of about 12 of our players. They helped me with a lot of issues within our team. That's one thing they voted that our players wanted to wear for this game. I approved of it.

Q. Justin Fuente at Memphis a few years back, you at USF, no strangers to one another. What can you tell me about the guy on the other side of this matchup?
WILLIE TAGGART: He's a heck of a competitor, heck of a coach. He always has a well-coached football team that plays the game the way he's supposed to. Always been a challenge. He's always been a part of the team that way, as well.

Q. I know you've done a nice job of bringing back alumni to the football program. Speak on the importance of that, not just at Florida State but in general, to reach back out to those players that came before?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think it's really important when you have expectations that those former players set for our current players. I think it's important that those guys are back around to be around our current players so they all can understand, not just hear from me, but actually the guys that have been through it and done it. I think it's great for the university. As the university continues to grow, the more guys we have back around, they see that, we'll grow as a program, at this point to have great alums.

Q. Talk about the quarterback battle. Are we going to see maybe Blackman on Monday if Francois struggles?
WILLIE TAGGART: The plan is to go in with Deondre as quarterback. The plan is for him to play well. We haven't thought about any negative ways. We'll deal with it if they come up that way. We're keeping it positive and expecting for Deondre to go in and play very well for us.

Q. Talk about Brian Burns, what type of defensive player he is? Talk about him in general.
WILLIE TAGGART: Brian is an outstanding person, outstanding football player, a great teammate. Really excited he was voted on by teammates as the captain. I will say it's been really tough offensively going against him every day in practice. He's really helping making our guys a lot better on the offensive side of the ball.

Looking for Brian to have a big year this year, be a great captain for our football team.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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