	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 19, 2018

Willie Taggart

Greensboro, North Carolina

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Florida State head coach Willie Taggart. Coach, if you could please give us an opening statement, then we will take questions.

WILLIE TAGGART: Had a good week of practice. Guys are coming out with a lot of energy. Had some really good concentration, good focus in practice. Felt like we got better as a football team. Looking forward to our game Saturday against Northern Illinois here at home. Big-time opportunity for us. I know our guys are ready to go.

Q. (Indiscernible). You weren't there in 2016, but is he having any side effects with the ACL or is everything healed and it's one of those mental things?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think he's fully healed. I think he's adjusting to running around with the brace on his knee. I think that affected him a little bit running around. But he's fully healed. He hasn't had any trouble with it since he's been back.

Q. With the offensive line struggling, trying to protect him, what do you have to do this week to get that offensive line working better, save him from running around with the pockets closing?
WILLIE TAGGART: We have to be smart as coaches, then guys got to do a good job of executing their blocks. I think overall we got to do a better job of running the football. That helps a lot when teams know you're just not going to drop back and throw the ball. I think we can be better in all those areas. If we're better in those areas, we'll get better play out of everybody.

Q. Obviously what you did at South Florida, I know you had some trying times in the beginning, had to bring in the guys you needed, change, build the culture you wanted to build. It took time. What can you say about Florida State, the same type of situation, knowing it takes time to get things going, how you react when people want things immediately?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think the world we live in, this great game of football, we all want things right now, including myself. But I think we all got to understand that sometimes they don't come our way, but we got to find answers and stay the course. The strange thing about it, you never know what it's going to click for you, all take off.

I never knew when it was. I knew we were good enough at times at other places that it can do it at any time. It's just a matter of everything coming together. I know at South Florida with our new offense, it took time because guys wasn't accustomed to going fast, they wasn't accustomed to no-huddle, those type of things.

Going out to Oregon, it was a little different because they had been doing those things. Coming to Florida State, you see how some of those things we're still getting acclimated with, getting better at each and every week.

I think it's going to (indiscernible) off. Guys, we got to take care of our business, trust the process, not necessarily the process, but trust our techniques and rules, what we're being taught, when we get on the football field, not panic.

Q. What can you say about Deondre Francois? He came onto this team highly touted as a recruit, went through injury, trying to work your offense. Where is he in the grand scheme of things? Where is he at right now?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think he's ahead of schedule considering the fact he didn't have spring ball, he shared a lot of reps in training camp. I think all these games have helped him. He understands what we're doing. We just got to give him some time. He had a lot of guys open this past Saturday. He just didn't have time to get it to them. When he does have time, he's done a good job of getting the ball to his receivers, not just one receiver, he's been able to spread the ball out to multiple guys. That's been fun to see from my standpoint. Now we got to make sure we protect him so he can get the ball to receivers. I think with help protection, we can run the ball better.

Q. We hear people say all the time about how you don't get pre-season games in college football. How challenging was it or difficult was it to have two conference games early in that period where other teams are trying to find their identity?
WILLIE TAGGART: It's challenging. The first game, I think for us what's challenging is you have so much newness going in there, new offense, new defense, new coaches, first time we all in a game together, operating together. I think for us that made it more challenging. If we had been here for a whole year already, had things in place, it would have been a little easier.

But after that, I mean, game planning, just like any other week. You got to go and play. You got to understand those conference games, the importance of it. Games you got to win.

Unfortunately didn't go our way there in the first quarter of our season. But we can put that first quarter behind us, now in the second quarter, see if we can get through the second quarter a lot better than we did the first quarter.

Q. The CFP and the ACC are celebrating Extra Yard for Teachers. What role did teachers play in your life, what impact have they had on your life?
WILLIE TAGGART: It was big. Just growing up, being able to go to school. Again, I think about my middle school Dean, Dean Wilder, he made sure he kept me in check every day he saw me. Made sure I was doing what I was supposed to, being where I was supposed to be. I can't remember a time where he never said anything to me, make sure I wasn't doing what I wasn't supposed to. That made a big impact on myself as I was growing up, helping me be more accountable.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297