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FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 1, 2019

Willie Taggart

Tallahassee, Florida

WILLIE TAGGART: Welcome, everybody. I will say for some it's been a long time, no see, but some I just saw you here recently. I'm real excited about starting training camp. We have 154 days until -- no.

(Laughter).

One day until training camp. That's pretty clever by Tamorrion Terry, huh? You know how much publicity he got out of that? That was pretty neat. Maybe that's a new marketing deal to do that. But Tamorrion, everyone knows who Tamorrion is now.

Anyways, looking forward to this training camp. Our guys had a really good off-season in the classroom and in the weight room. I'm really excited about the work they put in, and now we're ready to get out and work on some football and see how much the weight lifting and running and conditioning and those guys working in the off-season by themselves, seeing how much it pays off as we start camp and get a chance to see some of the new guys as well.

Really, really excited about the 2019 Florida State Seminoles football team, baby. Questions? Bring 'em on.

Q. I have a two-part question. I know you can't speak on any recruits directly. What's your thought about the momentum you built this last weekend, and what does it say about your program that you're able to have the success you're having even though you're coming off a down year?
WILLIE TAGGART: For us, we just know the plan works. So we just stick to the plan and keep working. We work on it every single day and try to find the right young men that we want in this football program that we want to help us build this and guys that want to be here.

We have a lot of them that come on campus, and they come back. We had a great weekend, and they felt a part of it.

I think Florida State speaks for itself. I think a lot of kids come in here and see our vision and want to be a part of it. I think it's great. I'm really excited about the ones that want to be here after a down year. That says a lot about them too.

Q. I mean, with this being year two, maybe guys know a little more of what's going to be expected other than when you were just coming in. How important can that be, that guys kind of know, like it's not going to be new to them like it was last year?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think, not just the players, but the coaches as well. Year two, everyone knows where to go. Nobody's thinking about where to go. Now you've got guys helping other guys going to the right places and how to do things. It makes it so easy, and you're able to do a little more when everybody understands what to do.

Then you get other people that can help others understand what to do, and when you got it going that way, then changing the culture and getting it to where you want to happens a lot quicker.

Q. Coach, how did you think the guys did in their summer strength and conditioning program? And just what did you see from them in that regard?
WILLIE TAGGART: Well, I've seen a lot of bodies change. I think you all see that when you come out to practice. A lot of guys' bodies changed. A lot of guys gained some weight. Guys that needed to lose weight, they lost some weight and feeling good about themselves.

We've got guys from Robert Cooper to James Blackman walking around with their shirts off now. So both feeling good about themselves and what they're doing.

No, guys worked really hard, and this started back in January. It wasn't just a summer thing. It started back in January, our players being committed to each other and working hard and being committed to get better. It translated over to spring ball, and we had a great off-season off the field. Then just hearing our guys talk about summer conditioning and then summer player-ran practices and how they go out and compete and how more guys are out there competing now than ever. Then you've got guys up on their day off running the stadium steps and just getting the extra work in.

It's pretty cool, but they've been working like that since January.

Q. Willie, following up on what you were talking -- or we touched on the changing culture. Where have you seen the culture change from where you are right now, and what still do you think is left to do?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think one is we're not pulling teeth to get our guys to do anything. I think the buy-in is there, and guys are starting to realize and understand the things we're asking them to do, how it really can affect them in a positive way and help them, but also understand how it all works together to make everything that we're trying to get accomplished work well together.

Just the buy-in, everything we asked our guys to do, whether it's going to class, community service, working on their craft, guys are doing that, and they're taking pride in doing it. I think it's even better when your best players are doing that. That's when you kind of see the younger guys take notice and start working on it as well.

Q. You've talked about coaching chemistry, how important that is. Back in the day, it seems like coaches used to go on retreats, kind of before camp started. Did you guys do anything like that? Did all your coaches get together and kind of bond, or how is that all coming together?
WILLIE TAGGART: We usually do a retreat every year. We did one last year. We didn't do one this year. We did more of a staff clinic here where we spent the day clinic-ing each other and what we do and what we're going to do and how we're going to teach things to where we're all on the same page and, again, understanding how we're going to go about getting it to our players.

So we did it a little different this year, which was pretty neat to sit in and be a freshman and listen to my coach teach me some football. So that was kind of how we did it, and it was good just seeing the different techniques of teaching from different coaches and how they go about presenting the information to our players.

We need more juicy here. It don't feel like the first day.

Q. As a staff as a whole, what's the importance of being able to develop guys who maybe weren't the highly touted recruits coming out of high school or maybe have to gain weight or lose weight? Every guy can't step in and be able to contribute right away, so with those guys who maybe need some extra work, how important is that for you?
WILLIE TAGGART: All of that is important, just developing, whether they were four, five star, wherever they were coming out of high school, it's so important developing them, not just as football players, but young men as well. That's part of the whole process.

It's cool to see, as these guys grow older and mature, how they become a little more important to things they didn't think was as important to them when they were younger. Now as they get older, they start to see that and start to take pride in their work, take pride in why they're here and what they came here to get accomplished. Seeing that in a lot of our guys now, it's been great because they can pass it on to the younger guys and making sure they come here and take care of business early and not allow things to sneak up on them.

But I think that's part of the whole deal of developing, no matter where -- some develop quicker than others as well. Some of them, it just takes a minute. All of them are different, but it's a daily process, and training camp is a great opportunity to get a lot of that development in.

Q. Willie, wondering how much are you able to look at like past jobs, whether at Western Kentucky, USF, to kind of gauge and see where you guys are at? I know earlier you said you feel like you're on track, but do you look back at old jobs to kind of see? Are we on a similar path?
WILLIE TAGGART: I wouldn't necessarily say the same path. All these jobs are different, but all the things that we do is what we've done before, and I know it works. For me personally, I know, when our guys buy in, you start to see things like in the small areas just become better -- you know, guys going to class, guys taking care of business in the classroom, guys staying out of trouble. When those little things start to happen, you start to see a culture change.

Again, as they grow, you can't overlook just where they're at in their class. When they grow and get older and mature, it gets better, but a lot of times, all that plays a factor. It's not until you sit back and look at them, we're a pretty young football team, a young football team that went through some change. The one time you want some leadership, that's the one time you would love to have some leadership, a lot of senior leadership, but we didn't.

So this was a little different, but I think a lot of it was just the buy-in. Talent is not the issue. Our guys buying in to what we're doing and believing in each other. Coaches believe in the players. Players believe in the coaches. More importantly, everybody coming and giving everything they've got for this university. That's when things turn around, when that becomes important.

Q. I've got two. First one is Tamorrion Terry, is there a status update? When do you expect him to practice at full speed?
WILLIE TAGGART: He won't start with us, but we don't necessarily have a set date when he'll get back into training camp and get to work again, but he won't start tomorrow with us.

Q. But you fully expect him to be in training camp at some point?
WILLIE TAGGART: I do.

Q. This is a question that excites me. I notice you had some non-morning practices, some afternoons, some evenings. What was the decision behind that, and is that something we can expect maybe moving forward in the season?
WILLIE TAGGART: No.

Q. Well, darn.
WILLIE TAGGART: No. It was just a little change-up to try to change up some things at training camp. For me, we're going to have some morning practice, we're going to have some afternoon practices, and we're going to have some evening practices. Just different times we have to play. We don't play that early in the morning, but there's different times throughout the season we play at 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, 6:00, 7:00.

Just getting our guys up ready to play and understand that, no matter what time we get up, there's a football out there, there's a line and hash marks and some numbers and some refs and a goal post. It's time to play ball.

So I'm just changing it up to give our guys a little something different. Sorry.

Q. Willie, at ACC kickoff, you made some comments about the offensive line, and Coach Clements did a good job of getting them to believe in themselves and believe in each other. I guess, how does that manifest itself? If that is different than maybe where they were a year ago, do you even look back and judge guys based on -- and you said before some of those guys weren't ready to play last year. Do you judge anything, in terms of depth charts, with what they did last year, or is it a pretty clean slate with Coach Clements?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think you always go off past performance. You have to look and see what guys are doing. Not only past performance, but Coach Clements got a chance to coach them in the spring, so he understands the individual and how they learn and how they are when it comes to blocking and doing those things.

I think, from a camaraderie standpoint of getting guys to play for one another, he's doing a great job of getting that done with our O-line group. I think that's so important that those guys have that unity amongst each other and care about each other, and more importantly, go out and play up to a standard that they want to play at. They understand the standard that they need to play at, and no one can do it for them. They've got to do it themselves.

I think they see that Coach believes in them, and they have to believe in themself, and I think they will. They believe in themselves and knowing that they've got to do it. They've been beat up for a few years now, and it won't stop until you get tired of it. You get sick and tired of it, then you'll go out and take care of your business, and they won't say those things.

Q. Coach, I asked you this at ACC media day, but have you heard anything from the NCAA about Jordan Travis' waiver, and if not, what will his role be during practice?
WILLIE TAGGART: We haven't found out on that yet, but hopefully we'll hear soon as we're in training camp. He's going to be out competing at quarterback until we hear something different. We're going to allow him to go out and compete as well, and hopefully we'll hear something soon and not have to prolong that -- proooo-long that.

But hopefully we'll know something soon. He's going to come out and compete, and looking forward to seeing him.

Q. If Tamorrion isn't going to be available for a little while, are you interested to see how some of your younger receivers can take advantage of any extra reps they might get?
WILLIE TAGGART: Well, I was looking forward to that anyway. I think it's so important that we continue to develop our guys. We have some young guys, like you say, some guys redshirted last year, and they get a chance to go out and participate. Excited to see those guys. They've had a great off-season as well. I think they're fired up just to go out. They were fired up anyways, but I think they'll be more fired up to go out there and compete and show what they can do and show that they can get the job done as well.

Q. I think last year the former offensive coordinator said you looked at every single throw the quarterbacks made before determining who's going to be the starting quarterback. Do you and Kendal have any sort of different approach or different values in what you guys look for a quarterback as maybe previous seasons you had with other coordinators you worked with?
WILLIE TAGGART: No, we're going to grade these guys every day on what we ask them to do and see if these guys can take information from the meeting room to the field and who can run our offense and do it efficiently and do it to where we're not being careless with the football. A guy's got to take care of the football and run our offense. A guy's got to go out there and get all 11 guys running on the same page and do it consistently enough at a high level. I mean, that's what we're looking for. They all have an opportunity to do it throughout training camp.

Like I said at ACC media day, I'm sure the best man is going to win the job, but every single day they're going to be graded on everything, not just throwing the ball around, but how guys are going to react to them, how guys respond to them, how guys respond when they say something, just everything.

I think it's so important to have it all, so we're going to evaluate it all and get the best guy and be ready to roll.

Q. Starting tomorrow, what are the biggest factors that you're looking for and areas that you need to improve in for this season to be a success?
WILLIE TAGGART: To get better every single day. Get 1 percent better every single day, everybody. We've all got to be better -- my players, our coaches, from a teaching standpoint, and players learning to take it to the field and doing it exactly the way that we say we want it done and playing with a lot of passion, a lot of energy, and being a disciplined football team, being a football team that's fun to watch, doing things the right way.

And those things start tomorrow, and every single day we've got to work on those things. There can't be a day that goes by that we're not working on the things we got to do to try to get better. For us, all the things we didn't do well last year, we'll be better at. A lot better.

Q. Coach, you mentioned that you guys would be without Terry for the start of fall camp. Will there be any other players that are out for the start of fall camp?
WILLIE TAGGART: The only other one, Cole Minshew. Cole, he's still not ready yet, so he won't be ready to start. Ja'Len Parks is still not ready yet. Other than those guys, no, sir. Great question.

Q. Hey, Coach.
WILLIE TAGGART: How are you doing?

Q. Pretty good. How about you?
WILLIE TAGGART: Excellent.

Q. Hey, I know today's the big report day. Freshman class is in. Did all those guys make it in, and everybody good to go when practice starts up?
WILLIE TAGGART: Yes, sir. All of them are here. They've been here for a while now. I've been getting a lot of rave reviews from our older guys, Coach, this freshman class is pretty good. They've been here and going to class. They're working out with Coach O. I see them all together all the time, but they're all here ready to roll. Really excited to watch them tomorrow.

Q. One other thing. On the newcomer, you've got a quarterback transfer in here, and I know he hasn't been here very long, but how is Hornibrook fitting in with everybody? How is his rotation going to be handled when you guys start practice?
WILLIE TAGGART: He's fit in perfectly. He's come here and done what I think all transfers should do is come in and get to know your teammates. He's done a great job getting to know guys individually, just spending time with them. So he's earned the respect of our team already, and guys are really excited about him. He comes to work to go to work every single day, and he's out working days off.

It's been good. I mean, guys like him. He likes being here, and they both will get reps with the ones, and we'll bring them all and make sure. They'll get reps with the twos. I think that's important too because how can you get the twos to go? That says a lot about you as a quarterback too. You can get those guys and make them a little bit better, that's great as well. They're going to compete, and we'll find the best guy.

Q. Willie, following up on the Cole Minshew, do you expect him back in camp, or do you know?
WILLIE TAGGART: I don't know. That's one I just don't know. I know it was back in the spring, but that's one we just don't know.

Q. And then also, I know there's been talk about maybe adding some support staff, analyst positions. Is that happening or anybody you can tell us about?
WILLIE TAGGART: I told you guys at the ACC Media Day about Stanford Samuel. He's going to be with us. Then that's it.

Q. Going back to Alex Hornibrook, when did he first kind of get on your radar as somebody who could be somebody to come in here? And what did he, I guess, do upon meeting with you to make you feel comfortable that he'd be a good fit for the team?
WILLIE TAGGART: I've been watching him play in the Bowl game, and even that year I watched some games, but even more watching that Bowl game and watching him win that game. I would say it's back in February I got a phone call from a good friend, a mutual friend that gave me a shout, and I was like -- you can only imagine where we were at that time. Absolutely. It went from there.

Then he came down to visit. He enjoyed it. I watched practice in the spring and really liked what he saw, liked what we were doing, and said this is where he wanted to be. So that's pretty cool. I'm glad he's here.

Q. Willie, with James Blackman, I guess, what's the biggest -- two-part question. With James, what is the biggest improvement or change in him you've seen this off-season? And then, two, even though he redshirted last year, in hindsight would you have liked to get him more reps, or has he benefitted from that time to kind of sit and watch more?
WILLIE TAGGART: I think he's benefited tremendously. I think he understands the game a lot better after sitting out last year and seeing it from a different standpoint. I see that by him being out there daily. Just wanting to talk football and learn more football and have ideals. I think that comes from just being on that side and seeing things. He comes in, and he has some ideas on how some things should look and what he's comfortable with.

With James, again, he's another one of the kids, he's just grown up. He's matured. He understands what's important and what's not important. That's the beauty of it is he's always been a leader and guys always followed him, but just seeing him mature even more in understanding what's important in life, what's important in him being at Florida State, those things become the reality to him, and he's excited about those things, and it's pretty cool to watch him do that and be excited about things like that.

So, yeah, I think his growth, again, redshirting and growth in seeing things has really helped him from that standpoint. He's always been a great teammate, but I think he's becoming a better leader now and doing a great job of holding guys accountable to what they all say they're going to do.

Q. Coach, with Stanford Samuel, what will his title be, and what can he bring to the table as far as what he can do for you?
WILLIE TAGGART: He's going to be a defensive analyst on the defensive side of the ball. Stanford is a smart football coach. He understands the game. If you're ever around him and get a chance to toss the football, you'll see that. He's going to be a good football coach one day, and he understands Florida State University, and he bleeds garnet and gold. He sat in that seat where a lot of those guys were sitting at, and he won a lot of ball games around here. He knows what it takes to win.

I think he's a good fit for our defensive staff as well and will add to that chemistry.

Q. With Cole being out for at least a little while, is Dontae Lucas a kid that could see himself working with the first team? Is he that talented? And who else is maybe in the mix at the tackle positions?
WILLIE TAGGART: You'll see a lot of freshmen going to have an opportunity. All of them have opportunities to go out and compete. A lot of these guys will do that. We have to allow these guys to do it and make sure we have the best guys out there. You'll see him. You'll see Ryan Roberts. He'll be out at tackle. Chaz Neal and Jauan Williams. You'll see some guys. You'll be out there tomorrow. You'll see them all.

Yeah, we'll allow those guys to compete too. It's not just a quarterback competition here. We have some dudes. We've got to see who's going to be the best dude to go out and help us win some ball games. There's going to be a lot of guys playing for us. They need to play. We've got to make sure we find out the right guys to play for us. The way you do that is allow them to compete and show what they can do.

We're going to have a lot of positions. That's what I'm excited about this training camp. You see a lot of positions, and it's going to be fun. You look at our linebacker position, how deep we are there. We weren't like that last year. You guys asked me a lot of questions about that position last year, and now we're pretty deep. I'm excited to see those guys compete. I think it's going to be fun to watch.

Q. On special teams, I don't know if I misinterpreted, but there were times Coach Dugans was working with gunners, and there were some times Coach Clements was helping out with field protections. Is special teams going to be Mark Snyder's job, or are other guys going to help out to even things out?
WILLIE TAGGART: Coach Snyder is going to be special teams coordinator, and every coach is going to have a role in special teams, all of them, even me. We're all going to have a role in special teams and making sure that we're invested in our special teams and making sure that we go out and play a lot better than what we were.

Q. Willie, Brendon asked you kind of about where you've been before and some of the changes. You said every program has been different. I'm curious, what kind of, generally speaking, are the year one to year two jumps that have you seen before?
WILLIE TAGGART: To me, it starts academically. That gets it, academically and socially, when you don't have a lot of outside distractions and start doing the things that you say you're going to do when you came here, and kids not being distracted by off the field stuff and not being distracted by doing well in class. I've got to get this grade. I've got to do this. I've got to do that. They don't have that stress on them, and you start to see everything else start to work out for them.

Again, a lot of that's just maturity. They get older, and things become a little more important to them. A lot of them don't know, especially when they first get there. They think it's a certain way. So they learn, and then a lot of guys, you think about a young football team. You think about Marvin and Cam and all those guys, they came here, and the Coach that brought them in here was gone. Then they had to get used to something else. These guys are freshmen going into their sophomore year. So it's not easy.

But experience helped that. They've had some experience, and they understand what they don't want to do anymore and understand what we need to do going forward.

Q. Willie, a couple of guys logged off of social media the last few days?
WILLIE TAGGART: Really? Who?

(Laughter).

Q. Who? James Blackman.
WILLIE TAGGART: Just a couple?

Q. Announced they were logging off.
WILLIE TAGGART: Just a couple, not the whole team?

Q. I didn't see a tweet from every player on it. Is that something the whole team is doing in unison, or is it each player individually? Is that something you pushed for, I guess?
WILLIE TAGGART: No. If they asked me, I'd tell them that, but if they did it, that's something they decided they wanted to do themselves. That's what they did. I thought you were going to say the whole team did that, wow. But that's something guys did themselves. They feel like that's something that's going to help them and help our football team focus and get the things we want, then pat their backs.

Q. Coach, in the last couple weeks, Deion was here with his son, and I think Jameis was here a couple weeks ago, and E.J. was here. Having those guys back, is there anything tangible that comes from those experiences from the young men? Do you encourage them particularly to try to get anything, or is it just nice to have them around?
WILLIE TAGGART: I always tell our guys to go up to the special ones, and they all do aspire to be where they're at in life. This is their opportunity to touch them. They usually see those guys on TV. They're right there in front of you. You have the opportunity, if there's ever something you wanted to ask them or something where you're trying to go and not sure and wanting to know from them, it's perfect. They're a Seminole. They sat right in the same seat these young men are sitting in and probably had the same dreams and goals and aspirations that these young men had when they were there.

In life experience, there's nothing like talking with someone that's been through and went through the things that you want to go through and doing it at a high level. It's just great to see former players come back to their alma mater and appreciate that. We appreciate that, and it's great that they show their appreciation to our university. They bleed garnet and gold. They love this place. You expect that and appreciate that.

Again, I hope our guys take advantage of having them around. It's great to have E.J. around, and some of our guys will get to meet him. He's a great young man. A great man.

All right. We're going to have some juice tomorrow? Have some juice. Football time.

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