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December 14, 2016
S PORTS
Willie Taggart Era Begins
Oregon’s new
coach aims for
a championship
Willie Taggart, the new coach
for the Oregon Ducks, says he
has a goal to become the first
black coach to win a national
college football championship.
Last week, Oregon hired Tag-
gart, the head coach at South
Florida, to take over the Ducks
following the dismissal of Mark
Helfrich. Taggart led USF to an
18-7 record over the last two sea-
sons, including a 10-2 mark this
year. He also spent three seasons
as coach of Western Kentucky,
his alma mater, and was an as-
sistant coach at Stanford.
“Oregon has a strong nation-
al presence and a proud recent
history of playing among the
nation’s elite, and I look forward
to the challenge of upholding
the excellence,” Taggart said in
a statement. “I can’t wait to get
Willie Taggart takes over as the new coach of the Oregon Ducks. (AP photo)
started.”
Taggart, 40, is the first coach
Oregon has hired from outside
the program since 1976 and
the first black football coach in
school history. The Ducks’ pre-
vious three coaches, Mike Bel-
lotti, Chip Kelly and Helfrich,
were all assistants who were
promoted.
Oregon’s new coach had sup-
port from former NFL player and
broadcaster Tony Dungy, whose
son Eric played at USF in 2014
after transferring from Oregon.
Taggart served as running
backs coach for Jim Harbaugh
at Stanford from 2007-09 and is
credited with helping to recruit
Andrew Luck. Harbaugh had
recruited Taggart, a quarterback,
to play at Western Kentucky un-
der father Jack Harbaugh from
1995-98.
Just two seasons ago, Oregon
went to the first College Football
Playoff championship game, led
by Heisman Trophy-winning
quarterback Marcus Mariota.
But the Ducks struggled this
season with a five-game losing
streak — the program’s longest
since 1996 — and finished at the
bottom of the Pac-12 North with
just two conference wins.