Commentary | Taggart gets the win he needed in a big way

TAMPA

After going through five quarterbacks in two seasons, Willie Taggart might have a quarterback controversy he should find to his liking.

The more the merrier.

The Bulls head coach was certainly feeling merry after USF disposed of Florida A&M 51-3 Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium.

Quarterbacks Quinton Flowers and Steven Bench led the onslaught with Marlon Mack chipping in 131 yards rushing and a defense playing its best game since Taggart put on his USF work shirt.

It wasn't pretty, but it was good enough for the Bulls head coach to hang on his office wall, sort of like a half-done Mona Lisa.

The winning margin was the largest in the Taggart era at USF, where he was 6-18 going into the FAMU game. HIs biggest lead was a 20-point margin against Cincinnati.

Expect the former Manatee High quarterback to feel good for a few hours. Next week he plays the other team from Tallahassee, which is known for more than having a good marching band.

This USF team is certainly better than the previous two Taggart directed, but then again, it would be hard to imagine anything worse.

There were still discipline issues, and USF got in its own way more than few times. The Bulls had three touchdowns called back on penalties in the first half and dropped a sure one in the endzone.

"We just needed to settle down. The early problems were due to what we were doing. It was more about us," Taggart said. "Once we settled down and starting executing, we were all right. The big thing is that it was great to see that our guys were not putting their heads down when things were going bad."

Some of the penalties were unacceptable, such as Mack strutting his way into the endzone and getting flagged for taunting at the two, which nullified his touchdown.

"Marlon is a guy who wants to do everything right and that was his first personal foul," Taggart said. "I let him know that I was disappointed in what he did, and he had to come back and make it up, which he did."

The uptempo offense Taggart and some his assistants, including Manatee High legendary coach Joe Kinnan raved about had its moments. The Bulls averaged 61 plays per game last year, but ran off 42 in the first half and had 72 for the game when their defense got a little sluggish and had to stay on the field longer.

Flowers started and showed why he was the third highest-rated dual threat quarterback in the country coming out of Miami Jackson.

The sophomore doesn't have the strongest arm, but he was a magician with his elusiveness that bought him enough time to throw two first half touchdown passes and stake the Bulls to a 16-0 halftime lead.

He reminds us a little of Matt Grothe, considered the best of all the USF quarterbacks and could be good enough to get people to come out to the games and give those empty seats some company.

In the first half, Flowers connected on 11-of-15 passes for 136 yards and two touchdowns while running for 34 yards on six carries. He finished scampering for a 29-yard touchdown on the Bulls first possession of the second half, and retired for the night with 63 yards rushing on 7 carries and was 12-of-16 for 141 yards through the air.

Just when you thought the Flowers era was set to begin, Steven Bench came off the bench to start the conversation all over again.

He showed a strong arm in the third quarter, completing all four of his passes for 81 yards, including a 62 yard TD pass to Elkanah Dillon for a 30-0 lead.

For the night, Bench completed 8-of-10 passes for 140 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 23 yards on four carries, including a 15 yard scamper into the endzone..

Did we say the Bulls defense was magnificent? It held FAMU to 182 yards offense and did not allow the Rattlers into their endzone.

Linebacker Auggie Sanchez led the defense with 10 tackles, and Bruce Hector recorded two sacks and three tackles for losses.

"I just loved the way our defense was flying around and seeing all those multiple guys around the ball. We were really stretched out. They didn't give up any big plays and were in the position that they were supposed to be in."

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Commentary | Taggart gets the win he needed in a big way."