	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

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 15, 2018

Willie Taggart

Tallahassee, Florida

WILLIE TAGGART: Good afternoon, everyone. First I would like to start by giving our condolences to all the people in the Gulf Coast who was affected by the hurricane last week. Terrible, terrible, terrible thing. Terrible reminder to all of us just how much life is bigger than just football. And I also was proud of some of our guys that volunteered to help pack trucks and bags to help some of the people over in the Gulf Coast, and our prayers are with them all.

This week is home coming. I'm excited about home coming, second half of the season. Our guys have had a good bye week, had some adjustments with our bye week, but had a good bye week, and looking forward to attacking the second half of the season.

Q. Coach, Janarius Robinson from Panama City. What were maybe your conversations with him last week? How is he doing? How is his family doing after the hurricane?
WILLIE TAGGART: He and his family lost their home. So he can only imagine how he's doing and how he's feeling. He's with his family and supporting them the best way he can. We told him we're here for him, and whatever we can do to help, we will.

Q. Could you maybe let us know some of the alterations you made to last week's practice because of the weather, and how much of that affects maybe not Wake Forest as much but future opponents that you like to game plan for during a bye week?
WILLIE TAGGART: I mean it affected us because we were going to practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, but we did practice Monday and Tuesday. And then we came back Saturday and practiced, so we made up for that Wednesday. Originally we were going to give players that Saturday off, but we came back since they had the Wednesday off, and we allowed our guys to go home and come back Saturday. So we had practice Saturday and Sunday and they had today off.

Q. Coach, I know Deondre got pretty banged up in that Miami game. Is he back to full speed? Is there any concern that he might not be able to go this week?
WILLIE TAGGART: No. He practiced Saturday and Sunday, yesterday. Deondre is good.

Q. And then also, to follow up on the two offensive linemen that have been banged up a lot, Dickerson and then Kelly, how are they doing?
WILLIE TAGGART: Kelly is doing well. Dickerson is still not able to play right now.

Q. After having time to kind of look over things in the bye week, is there anything else that you saw with the team that maybe you hadn't seen going week to week? Like did you get more time to reflect on things to work on and improve on?
WILLIE TAGGART: Absolutely. We were able to go back and evaluate what we did well in the first half of the season and what we did wrong and if they want to still continue to try to correct some of those things that we did wrong and make it better. And then build off of things that we did right. But more importantly, we just continued to work on ourselves and trying to make sure that we understand what we're doing and making sure that we don't make those mistakes that's been killing us.

Q. To follow up on that, sorry, no microphone, what things do you think you have done well that you can build on? What is encouraging there?
WILLIE TAGGART: I thought us throwing the ball down the field, stretching the field has been pretty good for us when we do do it. I thought tempo really helps us when we do it. So we gotta make sure we stay true to who we say we're going to be and just staying consistent with the run game. It hadn't worked for us like we wanted to, partially because we hadn't really stayed consistent with it. I think staying consistent with it opens up a lot of things within our offense, and we gotta continue to do those things and continue building the identity of who we're going to be.

Q. Coach, you said Landon is not available to play right now. Is it something that you anticipate him being able to come back at some point this season?
WILLIE TAGGART: Not sure. Again, it's not necessarily a time table whether or not he'll be back. It's whenever he gets healthy and he can come back and help us. It's been two weeks. I know you got a lot of questions.

Q. Willie, kind of a macro question, I guess. Can you talk about the state of college football and how every week it seems like -- they're called upsets but maybe they're not as big of upsets as we think they are and how hard it is to win week in and week out?
WILLIE TAGGART: Yeah. It's tough each and every week. You gotta come ready to play, but I think that's what makes college football so fun and exciting because you can't take a week off. Everybody is good now and the parity of college football is a lot closer than what it used to be, which makes the game great. You just gotta come ready to play. You gotta be on your A game I think is really important. I think you see the teams that's winning a lot, the teams that are winning championships, they play to a certain standard every week no matter who they're playing. And I think that's what we all aspire for our football teams to be. You have a standard in the way you play, so you don't play up or down to your opponents. That's what championship football teams do.

Q. Can you just tell us what last week was like for the program last Tuesday to I guess Saturday with guys leaving and coming back? How was that coordinated, and were you in touch with guys or support staff in touch with guys? What were those few days like?
WILLIE TAGGART: Yeah. We talked to our guys when we found out that the hurricane was coming and made sure that they all were going to be in a safe place, and they all pretty much the majority of our guys were home, and made sure the ones that were staying here was in a nice safe place and taken care of. For the most part some guys were going home anyways. They got a little extra time at home, so that was good for them. And then we told them they had to be back Saturday. And we checked on some of our guys, especially ones that was here in the area, to make sure that they were okay. And made sure everybody was back for Saturday.

Q. Maybe a silly question, but do you think some guys were nervous or anything like that? Some guys had never experienced anything like that.
WILLIE TAGGART: I think the majority of our team left and went home, so I think that can tell you whether or not they were nervous. They left and went home, but I wouldn't say nervous. Just being smart and being safe. I don't think anyone ever really talked about being nervous, and some of the guys that stayed here just talked about how it wasn't as bad as they thought it was going to be. Some wind and we saw the damage and the power. But you can only imagine just, again, people in the Gulf Coast and what they went through. What we went through is not compared to that.

Q. So is Janarius still with his family over there?
WILLIE TAGGART: Yes.

Q. Do you expect him to come back this week, and also if you could just talk about him? I know you talked in the spring about him being one of the guys when he got here opened his arms and really embraced you and this coaching staff?
WILLIE TAGGART: Yeah. He's a great young man, everything you look for in a student-athlete. And he loves this place. I thought he's been improving throughout the season as a football player. I think off the field he does everything we want him to do, and again, he's home with his family. He's helping his mom out and helping them try to get things in order, and we told him to take as much time as he can and when he's ready to come back, he can come back. But I anticipate him coming back and playing this week. But he knows we're here for him.

Q. Coach, last week you had a really tough loss to Miami.
WILLIE TAGGART: Two weeks ago.

Q. Two weeks ago. How did you see your team respond during the bye week, even though it was a bit disjointed?
WILLIE TAGGART: Good. I thought, again, our guys put it behind them and came to practice with the right attitude, and the attitude was to get better. And I think that all started in meetings, not just in practice. But our guys being able to bounce back and come with the right mentality to try to get better. And it wasn't no different last week. I mean they were upset, and rightfully so, but again, we had to be upset with ourselves because we didn't finish. You know, it's, again, a learning lesson for our football team and a hard way to learn, but we gotta take those things and make sure we practice and prepare and make sure that those things don't happen again.

Q. Speaking of the loss to Miami, Willie, did you ever hear back from the ACC on the illegal forward pass?
WILLIE TAGGART: Yeah. Kind of like I said before, that it was undisputable evidence to be able to overturn that.

Q. Did the offices reach back out to you and say this is what we saw?
WILLIE TAGGART: They looked at it, and they checked it in the box during the game, and that's what they said.

Q. Willie, during the game against Miami, it seemed like there were some improvements in the running game. Looking back on film, did you see that? Do you feel like it's getting closer?
WILLIE TAGGART: I did. I felt more like our backs were starting to really understand the blocking schemes and setting up blocks like they're capable of. I thought our backs ran hard and physical like they're capable of. And I thought our O line did a good job there, especially in the first half when we were moving the ball and being consistent in the first half. I think tempo helped with those guys doing it, but more importantly, I thought our backs saw the blocking schemes a whole lot better than what they were doing before. A lot of them came out being a little more patient?

Q. And following up on the tempo, you mentioned last week also that you felt like maybe you guys had gotten away from that and you want that to be your identity. At the time was it a necessity because of the penalties and things like that or is that something that's going to kind of come and go?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think you gotta decide, again, you going to live with something, and again, tempo is a big part of who we're going to be and what we do. So I thought earlier we got away from it because of the penalties and the young receivers and guys just lining up, and that cost us quite a bit on some big plays. But I thought overall, not having tempo probably cost us more than just those plays. So just getting back to what we're going to be and how we're going to be and trying to do it very, very well.

Q. Coach, going off the tempo, is that something that now like in hindsight was a slower adjustment than maybe you had thought for the guys to get used to playing that since they haven't for a long time?
WILLIE TAGGART: I knew we was going to have some issues. Didn't want a lot of the injuries that we had up front. I think that affected a lot of what we did, especially with tempo. But you also knew we had some young receivers that was playing for the first time, and they're going to have some mistakes. And you never know how a guy is going to respond in games until you get in the games and we saw it. But it took time. They got better with it. We haven't had many, I guess, illegal procedures or guys covering guys up here lately. So they're getting better at that and getting better with the tempo and we're continuing to get better. I think we'll see more production out of our offense?

Q. Did you get to look at Wake Forest the way you wanted to last week and what were your initial impressions?
WILLIE TAGGART: Yeah. I see a football team that's been in their system for a while now and guys understanding what they're doing, a team that's played some good football teams and didn't necessarily come out the way they wanted to, but they're well coached. Our guys understand that. They played them last year and know what to expect. It's going to be a good football team coming in here. They had a bye week just like us and looking for a win just like us. So our guys understand that, and we gotta prepare and make sure we go out and play our very best to have a very good home coming?

Q. Willie, in the first half of the season you guys couldn't get out much to do recruiting, but with the time off last week, you were. What's been the reception from recruits after the start you guys have had? Obviously in the off season you could sell everybody is undefeated. Now you got a few losses. How receptive have they been and how have those conversations gone?
WILLIE TAGGART: It's been good. We talk to our guys not only during this bye week, but throughout the season. Our guys understand what we're doing, what we're trying to build and how we're trying to build our football program. It's been good. They see the football team and see the struggles that we're having. They also understand why we're having those troubles, too. I think as long as we communicate with them and they understand what's going on. I don't necessarily think the way our season is right now will affect the recruiting. I think our guys know where we're at, know where we're going and know why we're recruiting them?

Q. Last week you said you wanted to use practice to help Francois get rid of some old habits and hitching up in the pocket and stuff like that. Have you been able to do that with you all not being able to practice as much last week?
WILLIE TAGGART: We practiced as much as we're going to practice. We got our three practices in, and we've been working on fundamentals and techniques, and that's one of the techniques that we really want him to improve on. And you can see it in practice, and we wanted to be able to translate in the game. I think it'll help our offense. So we would like to see it in games as well?

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297