Commentary | Joe Kinnan knew Willie Taggart was the right person for USF football program
Joe told us so and when Joe talks you should listen.
Joe Kinnan knows better than most. And he knows Willie Taggart and Danny Hope and a thing or two about how to move the football down the field.
When he told the Bradenton Herald in an exclusive interview before the season that the University of South Florida could be the next TCU, the first reaction was to snicker. You wanted to politely dismiss the legendary former Manatee High coach as being swallowed up by too many game plans.
He had just joined the USF staff as an assistant and most people were taking bets on how long it would be before head coach Willie Taggart would be fired.
Entering his third year, Taggart was coming off a 4-8 season preceded by a 2-10 mark. As a quarterback under Kinnan, he took Manatee to two straight state championship games and won one.
Even Taggart's biggest supporters couldn't find six wins this season, which was thought to be required to save his job.
Good ol' Joe. He saw eight, nine and maybe even 10 and an offense that could put up Big 12 Conference numbers where defense is only an
afterthought.
Now Taggart is on the verge of becoming one of the hottest young head coaching commodities in college football after escaping the hot seat. The Bulls are now 6-4 and second in East Division of the American Athletic Conference.
What Kinnan saw was a superstar in the making in quarterback Quinton Flowers and he had a scheme to best use his talents.
In Taggart, he saw a former pupil who knows how to win, but was lacking talent in a football culture in need of an overhaul after Skip Holtz.
Taggart is a guy who keeps things in perspective by never getting too high or too low. After the win over Temple last Saturday, he admitted his first two years at USF were tough and you could hear the churning emotions in his voice.
His postgame celebration was vintage Taggart.
"I went home and went to sleep. I was tired," he said. "I told our guys we worked hard during the week, and when we wake up the next day, it's back to work. There is no chance to celebrate because we still have that goal (American Athletic Conference championship) ahead of us."
This coaching staff never panicked, even when the Bulls started the season 1-3 and the vultures were flying over Raymond James Stadium looking for a victim in case Tampa Bay Bucs boss Lovie Smith escaped.
In his first two years, USF's anemic offense ranked the near the bottom of the Football Bowl Subdivision. People said he didn't know offense. Taggart kept quiet, took the blame and just said be patient.
Temple came to town with the top-ranked defense in the AAC and the Bulls put up 44 points and 556 yards of offense on the Owls.
USF is 15th nationally in rushing offense with 2,279 yards and just 157 shy of the program record.
Taggart always remained positive during his first two years though you knew the losses were eating at him. He stuck to his core beliefs, but made some adjustments.
Now he said he feels good for the current seniors who were there when he took over the program prior to the 2013 season.
"We said at the beginning of the year we would do everything we could to send the seniors out on the right note," Taggart said. "It's gratifying to think what they've been through and the coaches. They all paid the price to help turn the program back on the right note."
Taggart warns this USF program is not there yet. There is a lot of building still to do, but this young team is talented and close to doing something special.
He said he is most proud of how his players responded against Temple when their 31-10 halftime lead shrunk to 31-20 early in the second half.
"In the past we would've folded and hung our heads. It just shows the signs of a team that is confident and has matured," Taggart said.
Nobody outside the USF program knows what Kennan's job is, but Taggart didn't bring him in for window dressing. He works side by side with USF co-offensive coordinator Hope, who got his first coaching job at Manatee under Kinnan.
A lot of folks around here like to call it the Manatee Mafia with a little Harbaugh dust thrown in.
It was a stroke of genius for Taggart to bring in Kinnan superseded by his hiring of Tom Allen as defensive coordinator. The 48-year-old got a late start in college football working 12 years as a high school coach and didn't get a job with a FBS school until late in his career.
Taggart sees things in people before others do. It's a reason he hired former local prep coach Ray Woodie as a USF assistant coach, adding some more local flavor to the Manatee Mafia.
Alan Dell, Herald sports writer, can be reached at 941-745-7056. Follow him on Twitter @ADellSports.
This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Commentary | Joe Kinnan knew Willie Taggart was the right person for USF football program ."