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FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 17, 2018

Willie Taggart

Tallahassee, Florida

WILLIE TAGGART: Good afternoon, everyone. Let me begin with just a few general comments and some thoughts. To piggyback on my comments after the game on Saturday, our fans have every right to have high expectation of our program and I can assure you that no one has higher expectations than I do. We have a proud history and tradition of football at FSU and it is on our shoulders to carry on the torch and our fans, students, alumni, former players deserve a team that plays better than what we have so far this season. Our program has some tremendous young men who are determined to get it fixed and who are committed to turning this around and a group of coaches who are looking at everything, including ourselves. I watched the game one of Syracuse about five times since Saturday, looking at everything, and our offense must do better at all positions. Our defense has played well, though not perfectly. Our special teams must be an asset to this team. We have spent the last 48 hours as a team identifying areas to improve in, self-evaluating what we do, how we do it, working hard in practice and with renewed purpose I am confident that we will get it done. But all the words and coaching cliches and assistance that we must do better won't help us play better. That comes in the form of coaching, it's why we coach, it is on me and our assistants to get this right and we will. I believe in this team and I believe this team will get it done. Now on to northern Illinois. Questions.

Q. Based on that, those comments, are there things that maybe that you thought the coaching staff didn't identify or maybe miscalculated, some things in terms of either personnel or what you guys were capable of this early in the year?
WILLIE TAGGART: No, I just think we can all be better in what we're doing. I think as coaches we got to evaluate every day how we're coaching and what message we're taking to our guys and making sure we're challenging our guys to question us if they don't know what to do. I think that as a coach and as a teacher you got to find ways to get to your players so they can do exactly what you ask them to do. So I think as coaches we got to be smart and make sure we're not over coaching and making sure our guys are comprehending what we need them to do and understanding why we're doing certain things.

Q. Can you just walk us through the mindset of that locker room after losing to Syracuse this past week?
WILLIE TAGGART: Frustration. Everybody's upset. Obviously. Everybody was embarrassed by the way we played and they were hurt. I mean, that was it. There was some hurt players in there, hurt coaches, hurt everybody. And disappointed and frustrated at ourselves.

Q. For the blocking, both protection run blocking, outside of players executing better and improving, are there some things you can do scheme-wise to maybe buy them a little bit more time, things like moving the quarterback or moving the tight end, are you looking at things like that?
WILLIE TAGGART: Absolutely. We can move the pocket, we can get De'Andre out of the pocket more, we can go different pass protections to try to help out. I thought we did within the game, we did some seven-man protection, which is the max protection for you, and at times it worked and at times it didn't work. So it goes back to fundamentally and straining through blocks and understanding what they're about to do so you can execute the play a lot better. But there's a lot of different things that we can do and will do to help our guys.

Q. Speaking of the O line, Sutton Smith is probably one of the better rushers in the country, what's your thoughts on him and how do you think you guys can slow him down?
WILLIE TAGGART: He's a heck of a football player. He's a young man that plays with fanatical efforts which helps him be a great defensive end. He goes all out every single play and it's going to be a challenge for us, we got to know where he's at every single play and make sure we get guys on him, because he is a heck of a football player.

Q. In the past during the Fisher era they were able to occasionally move an offensive linemen to defensive tackle. Is there anybody at defensive end who could be moved to offensive tackle or is that something that's an option?
WILLIE TAGGART: Not necessarily right now that's going to come in and help us win ball games. We moved Arthur Wilson over and he's playing for us now, he's played D-line men for four years here and he just moved over in training camp and now he's playing for us. And he's doing the best job he can do right now and only getting better as he gets more reps in there. So I don't see anybody else on the defensive side of the ball that can actually just come over and help us right now get done what we need to get done. We got to go with the guys we have and we got to do a great job of developing them a lot quicker than we wanted to and make sure we put them in the best position for them to be successful.

Q. You talk about reassessing how you practice, is there anything in specific you want to try to do differently at practice going forward?
WILLIE TAGGART: Well, just want to make sure that we're not necessarily running just any and every play, making sure we're going to run the play that we're going to run in games and our guys understand everything they can get to that play from a defense standpoint so they can execute it a lot better on Saturdays. Our guys got, we got to be have more consistent play and be better when it comes to fundamentals and technique and you can be better when you understand what's going on and what you're going to get from the defense.

Q. You mentioned the initial frustration in the locker room I don't know how much how much you have been around the he other players and coaches since what's the response been and what do you expects the response to be?
WILLIE TAGGART: We had practice yesterday and I felt after Saturday's game it was going to be one of those sour puss practices, guys coming around and pouting and all and it was totally opposite. Our guys had total focus, a lot of energy, and it started in the meetings and again which said a lot to me. Our guys, they definitely want to get this corrected and they are willing to do whatever it takes to get it corrected, but for them to come out with that mindset was a plus for me and something I want our guys to be able to do and we had a really good practice yesterday.

Q. You mentioned how you want special teams to be an asset. Against Virginia Tech you had a blocked punt, Syracuse almost blocked three or four, is it something with the formation or is it just players missing assignments?
WILLIE TAGGART: Well, again, the one against Virginia Tech it was just I guess you can call it a missed assignment, a player didn't block the guy right in front of him and we didn't block it, it was nothing special they did, we just didn't block on that one. And then in the Syracuse game where it got close there, we didn't strain through our block. We got to strain through our blocks and it's something we got to do not just on special teams but on offense and defense, strain a little more. And then we got to be better at op time. Op time we got to be a lot better and that always helps when you can get the ball out quicker.

Q. Sounds like you were maybe trying to get more feedback from the players about what they're experiencing or questions they have and if that's the case did you, what kind of feedback did you get? Was there any information that was helpful?
WILLIE TAGGART: Ask that question again.

Q. Sounded like you were saying when you said the whole team needs to figure this out, it sounded like maybe did you ask the players for feedback on kind of what their questions are or what their thoughts?
WILLIE TAGGART: No, what I was saying is our players, when it comes to plays and things that we're running is it's not sitting in meetings and just sitting there and just coach tell you something and you shake your head, but if you don't know, we want you to be able to tell us as coaches, hey, coach, I'm not sure what you said, I'm not understanding that. To not leave the meeting room not understanding what you're doing, so that you go on the football field and you execute the way that we want to. I think sometimes that happens where guys don't want to raise their hand and say, coach, I'm not sure and we got to make sure that -- and sometimes as coaches we just got to ask them rather than rely on them, ask them what they know and how we're blocking certain things, so they can tell us and then a lot of times during that time you find out what they know and what they don't know. When you ask them and get them more involved in it.

Q. You guys haven't been putting much points on the board, since the start of the season, can you just tell us what the offense needs to work on moving forward?
WILLIE TAGGART: Again, I think we all can be better as coaches, and players, starting with us, we got to make sure we're putting our guys in the best position for them to be successful. And then as players they got to execute the way they know they're capable of. I mean when you watch the film and the reason I'm not discouraged is because you see that we're so just one guy here or a half second here and we get some things off. So when you watch it just goes back to we got to be better in putting our guys in position and then demanding that they do it the way that we want to. We got to become a more disciplined football team in every aspect, whether it's discipline in your techniques and fundamentals or your discipline and not getting selfish penalties that hurts the football team. We just got to be disciplined overall before anything can take off and be what we need it to be offensively. And then probably the most important thing we got to be able to run the football, something we haven't been able to do. And that's never been the case and that's something we have to do and if we can run the football this offense becomes a lot better.

Q. Again on the line blocking, I assume, are you getting a little bit more consistency in practice than you're seeing in games and if that's the case, what why is it not translating on to the field?
WILLIE TAGGART: Well I think that a lot of times our guys are just panicking. Our guys know what to do and they panic -- and I think that happens when you get beat once or twice and then you start to panic rather than trusting our technique and trusting your rules and your assignment and then you try to do too much. I think that's what's happening, our guys are trying too much, rather than just block your assignment, block your rules and watch your rules and the rules will take care of everything for you. And that comes with confidence in what you're doing and I think what we see is a lot of guys playing, some guys playing wasn't expected to play and we just come with reps until they get comfortable and confident in what they're doing and that's when it's going to be perfect for us, but as coaches we got to make sure we understand that those guys are new and haven't had a lot of experience, most of them, and making sure we put them in the best position so they don't get bent out of shape while out there and they can be confident and comfortable in their assignments and their rules.

Q. I know Derrick Kelly looked like he had to be helped off at the end of the game what's his status?
WILLIE TAGGART: He'll be out this week. He won't play this week.

Q. After the game Saturday you mentioned the idea of maybe slowing down the offense. After reviewing the game do you think that's something that could help and what could that do for you if you decide to go that way?
WILLIE TAGGART: Well I think that slowing it down would probably do, what it would probably do is eliminate some of the pre-snap penalties that are happening, especially with some younger receivers that we have out there. I think the big thing it will probably help that. But that's what we are and in this offense we like to go with tempo, so we're not going to get away from it, we just got to be smarter and find different ways in practice to make sure our guys are lining up the right way and being able to do it fast and communicating with the referees, so the referees can tell them when they're on and off the ball. And then trusting the referees. I mean, the one play we had our player told the ref he was off the ball and he was off and then our player just screwed up for whatever reason. You can't do that. You got to stay focused and locked in on what you're doing.

Q. When it comes to the running game how much do you need a quarterback to run the ball when it comes to this offense, how much does that help the running game when you have a quarterback that keeps it and gets positive yards?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think in any offense when you got a quarterback that can run and get you some first downs with his feet it always helps. I think in the running game you got a quarterback that can run, now you make the defense have to defend 11 guys in the run game instead of 10. So it helps you tremendously from that standpoint. I don't think you necessarily need the quarterback to be able to run the football but it does help tremendously when he does run the football for you. But again we have some tremendous backs and we got to get the ball to them and I think that when you look at us, we as an offense right now we don't have an identity. We got to establish an identity and what we're going to be and who we're going to be and that's on me as the coach to help us do that.

Q. For this offense though, 2018 Florida State, do you think your quarterback needs to be more of a weapon in the running game?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think when we ask him to. I think he's getting better at doing those things when we ask him to do it. In that game on Saturday, we didn't ask him to do it as much and then as we got behind we had to throw the ball a little more and then at times when he did, he made some good reads, he scored on one and the other one he, our guard blocked the wrong back if we block the right back he's running down for however many yards. So I think he's getting better at our quarterback reads, quarterback runs that we ask him to do and it's going to help us as we continue on.

Q. With Derrick Kelly out and Dickerson still out is there a potential that a freshman offensive linemen could play or is that not on the table at this point?
WILLIE TAGGART: Well I think everything's on the table right now and make sure we find answers and making sure we find the right five guys in there to get us going. And again, with a group that we don't have much depth at offense from the beginning, again anything is possible right now. So like I say some guys are going to have to develop a lot quicker than we thought they would and it's just, that's where we're at and we got to I understand for a the right guys to get it done.

Q. You're building something for the long-term, is it worth at any point to maybe go away from things that don't align with your principles to get some short terms results or just put some band aids to survive this early part of the season?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think you got to evaluate everything you're doing and making sure you're making changes that are right for where you're going as a program and what you're doing, not just making rash decisions because things just aren't going your way. We got to do a great job of evaluating everything and why they aren't going the way that we need them to. And then correct them, correct the why, why those things aren't happening for us. But we got to be smart and more importantly play to our guys strength and not their weaknesses. And that's on us as coaches to find what our guys do best and ask them to do that. As we get going and get momentum and our guys get comfortable with what we're doing, then we'll start seeing more improvement from our guys.

Q. Two questions, first De'Andre health-wise, how is he? He got hit a lot on Saturday?
WILLIE TAGGART: He did, he's good. He's good.

Q. Did you realize I mean he took last time he played in 2016 he got hit a lot too. How tough a kid is he?
WILLIE TAGGART: Very tough. Very tough. I mean I would rather run him and get hit than have him sit back there and get hit, because at least he'll know it's coming. But he's a tough kid. He sits there in the pocket and he tries to wait until some guys come open to get the ball at them. Not many guys can do that. You got to have a heart to sit in there and do it. Sometimes I would rather him run than sit there. And there's times where he's got to hitch up in the pocket too and not sit back at the top of his drop and be a sitting duck, so there's things from a quarterback technique things he can be a little better at too in hitching up to avoid some of those hits that he's getting. But I like to see him, if he don't have it, take off and run a little more than what he's doing.

Q. And a couple times on Saturday you had delay of games coming out of a kick off or a change of possession. Is that a communication thing with you in the box or you and the players what's going on there?
WILLIE TAGGART: Well that's more a communication thing and more I know the one you're talking about is that's more the player just had a brain fart, you know, out there. I mean he knew it, we all said it, and he knew it, he came back and he said that's my bad, coach. Trying to get him on the right side and he was on the wrong side and delay of game, we could have took a timeout, we felt we needed it, so -- but that's all part of our guys being locked in to what we're doing and that is where we got to be a lot better at is understanding and being disciplined in what we need to do. We can't have those penalties, those pre-snap penalties, before that's killing you before you even get started. So we need to be a heck of a lot better on that.

Q. Sometimes when things aren't going your way social media can be a toxic place. Personally how do you handle that and do you as coaches maybe coach some of the players on how to handle that?
WILLIE TAGGART: I handle that by not being on there. That's pretty simple for me. And you understand when you don't play well people are going to say negative things. That's part of it. If you don't want them to say negative things then we got to play better. So with our players the same way. We tell them the same thing. That's part of it, that's the world we live in now, everybody has an opinion and you can't let everybody's opinion affect what you're doing. But they're going to have negative or positive, depending upon how you play. If we play bad, they're going to say bad things. And you can't get upset, we should be upset with ourselves. If we want them to say good things about us, we need to go play well. And they will. And our guys understand that, they understand we got to take care of our business if that's what we want. So we can't get frustrated at anyone by getting, mad at us. To me they're upset because they know we can play better than what we're doing. We're not playing the way we're supposed to, so they have every right to be upset. And we got to change that. We can't ask them to change the way they think or anything, we can earn their support and earn their respect by the way we play.

Q. Toward the end of the game I think on their last touchdown run you were talking to Dantavious after the play, kind of like it looked like about a technique thing. Is it important that even as thinks things are going poorly to focus on the details?
WILLIE TAGGART: Absolutely. You can't ever get away from it. Because that little detail, that little detail is telling to avoid that guy scoring on that play. And it was more not running around the block. As soon as he ran around the block the running back replaced where he was. He's got to take on that block and force him back to his teammates. So I always think that no matter, as long as the clock is on the board, every opportunity you get to teach and help your guys, you got to do it, no matter what the situation is. And hopefully he will take that and run with it and it might be a situation this week where he does it right and it helps us in the game.

Q. Back to the injuries on the O line, how is Dickerson's rehab going and how is Minshew's health?
WILLIE TAGGART: Minshew's is good and Dickerson is coming along well with history has been. Still not sure when he will exactly be back but he's coming along really well. Once again, I believe in this football team and I believe they're going to get it right. We're all going to get it right. Hang in there with us. Go Noles.

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