Would Willie Taggart Have Outperformed Mario Cristobal?

[FishDuck Article]

These are not two of your favorite people to contemplate right now, but I would ask for your indulgence and fantasizing along with me. I understand how people are angry at Coach Willie Taggart for leaving after only one year, but if Coach Mario Cristobal had been offered his dream job in Florida after only one year–wouldn’t he have bolted ...

 

Would Willie Taggart Have Outperformed Mario Cristobal?

FISHDUCK.COM

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These are not two of your favorite people to contemplate right now, but I would ask for your indulgence and fantasizing along with me. I...

[Drex Heikes]

 

Love this idea. I put Taggart in a box on a shelf and forgot about him. You bring him back with fascinating questions and thoughts. 

 

Well said. I wonder what you make of this one other factor: he imploded quickly at Florida State. What problems that he had at FSU might have surfaced at Oregon if he stayed?

 

 

[Haywarduck]

What you bring up for me is head coaches are better while at Oregon. Taggart style of football was a better fit, but there are too many what ifs to go too deep into the question, for me. Plus I might end up sick while discussing these two.

 

The big definite is Justin Herbert would have been a better qb under Taggart. He may have been a Heisman winner, and just might have brought us a natty.

 

Neither coach seems to be a qb whisperer, so the end for both coaches may have been when Justin left. Taggart is struggling again at FA, just like the other coach, in due time.

 

Bottomline Oregon makes great Head Coaches, but that doesn't extend to their next job(s). 

 

Also I put Taggart out with the garbage when he left, just waved goodbye to the other guy, and shook my head when they both left.

[David Marsh]

Oddly enough the Miami job did open up right after Cristobal's first year. 

 

He either declined an interview or wasn't offered one because he never interviewed for it then. It did have fans nervous at the time. 

 

Beyond that the way Cristobal had his contract structured, because of Taggart, meant that his buyout was pretty crazy high for his overall contract and he had only coached a year at Oregon so it probably wasn't seen as worth it for a team to buy him out at that point.

 

Granted.... We thought his buyout later around 8 million was going to be enough lock him in at Oregon but that didn't turn out to be the case. And I'm happy for it. 

[Mic]

I think it's an interesting question but rather a moot point.  Personally, I like Cristobal's leadership more but we didn't have Taggert around long enough to know whether or not he would have made better in-game decisions.  The better recruiter?  Probably Cristobal, but again, not enough evidence to judge.

 

Ironic that both coaches dumped Oregon for their 'dream jobs', spoken or not.  And in the end, Oregon will be better off without both.

[Charles Fischer]

On 9/19/2022 at 5:24 AM, Drex Heikes said:

What problems that he had at FSU might have surfaced at Oregon if he stayed?

To be honest...I do not know what went wrong at Florida State for him.  I do believe that the group of assistant coaches he assembled at Oregon was pretty good, and most stayed with Cristobal. 

 

Chip was great with the Oregon coaching staff, but when he had to recruit his own at UCLA...not the same.  (As he does not care for recruiting)

[Charles Fischer]

On 9/19/2022 at 6:31 AM, Haywarduck said:

He may have been a Heisman winner, and just might have brought us a natty.

Fellow OBD member and analyst Mike West believes that under Taggart--Herbert would at minimum been in the NY as a Heisman finalist.

 

Arroyo was a much better OC/QB coach under Taggart than he was under Cristobal!

[Charles Fischer]

On 9/19/2022 at 8:18 AM, Mic said:

Personally, I like Cristobal's leadership more but we didn't have Taggert around long enough to know whether or not he would have made better in-game decisions.  The better recruiter?  Probably Cristobal, but again, not enough evidence to judge.

We did quite a few analysis articles in 2017, and IMHO Taggart was very good at play-calling and having a diverse offense that was difficult to stop.  Taggart had the best class in Oregon history when he left and Cristobal had great ones, but not as high as No. 2 or No. 3 when Taggart left.

 

And we have to remember that Cristobal was there recruiting for Taggart, in addition to Willie able to smooth Florida parents.  To me, in recruiting and game management--there is no comparison.

[Lrod]

Great topic question...

 

Tough one.   I hate what Taggart did to us, but I think his coaching philosophy was a better fit than Cristobals for the long haul.  FSU didnt have enough patience to see a legit result.  Im not upset they gave him the boot.  

 

Cristobal had the time here and it was above avg regardless of the decision making and terrible offenses.  He still won a big game or two. 

 

Id give the edge to Taggart.  I think if he had NIL benefits like now, he would have definitely succeeded every year.  

 

Neither one will be able to do what Lanning will do for this university.  

[Mudslide]

Normally I don't care for "What if..." questions.  They bring little to reality.  But this one of Charles had me pondering.  I guess I agree with Mike West's analysis.  I thought Taggart, for all his flaws, was a lot brighter than MC.  And he was open to change that somehow eluded the stubborn Cristobal.

 

All that said, thinking about these two goofy coaches makes me a little grumpy this morning.  And it's a bit like comparing Stalin with Hitler.  Which one would have been a better tyrant?

[HappyToBeADuck]

Willie would have encouraged the offense to score points. There would have been no shackles or reigns. That throttle would have been wide open. 50 plus points a game with Justin in 2019. With that 2019 defense the CFP was a reality.

 

Not sure about the defense after 2019 and how it would have faired under Willie.

 

Both could recruit talent. One coach wanted 50 plus points a game. The other wanted power, control and one score games.

 

Enough said.

[Log Haulin]

For whatever reason, Oregon makes coaches look good. Kelly, Taggart and Mariø all got big paydays after leaving Oregon. 

 

Seems that Oregon is the strength of these coaches not these coaches being the strength of Oregon. 

 

Two of these three failed outside of Eugene. The third is just starting that process. 

 

Oregon makes coaches great not the other way around. If Lanning can level up from these three, Oregon might reach the top of the mountain. And Win! 

[David Marsh]

On 9/19/2022 at 8:24 AM, Charles Fischer said:

Arroyo was a much better OC/QB coach under Taggart than he was under Cristobal!

EVERY OC is better under any coach than Cristobal. I could be the head coach and they would be better! 

[David Marsh]

On 9/19/2022 at 9:23 AM, Log Haulin said:

For whatever reason, Oregon makes coaches look good. Kelly, Taggart and Mariø all got big paydays after leaving Oregon.

Kelly had a veteran staff that built this Oregon program and made us relevant. It was an incredible staff that did so much of the heavy lifting for Kelly and he never truly understood how important that staff was to his success until he left. He has now coaches more games at UCLA than Oregon as a head coach and his Oregon record is still better. 

 

Taggart had a good base of players. Helfrich did a better job at recruiting than anyone gives him credit for but the success of Taggart and Cristobal was built on the base of Helfrich and that incredible Oregon staff's recruiting and finding 3 star diamonds in the rough. However, you don't want national championships with 3 stars. Taggart had the audacity to declare Oregon was a broken program and needed a full rebuild, it needed a good defensive coordinator and some culture realignment and that turned the program around.

 

Cristobal built his offensive line for the first two years, and a Rose Bowl win, on the Helfrich offensive line and he supplemented with a Sewell and some transfers. Not downplaying the impact of Sewell, he was a beast, but Cristobal inherited the base offensive line. Then there were some major recruiting achievements that helped propell Oregon into thr national recruiting rankings. But we all know how good Cristobal's coaching and talent development is/was. 

 

Right now it feels like Lanning gets the Oregon culture and history better than Taggart and Cristobal. He also has the recruiting chops to enable Oregon to acquire the talent needed to win a national championship. Time will tell but Lanning feels like he gets it. 

[Haywarduck]

What we can analyze is where these two guys ended up at. Taggart took over an ACC old power program, so has our latest previous coach.

 

Taggart took over FSU's program after they went  7-6 and went 5-7, then 4-5 and out.

 

MariØ took over Miami's program after they went 7-5 and are expected to do better than 5-7, but that is something we can definitely compare.

 

Willie was coaching about 500 ball and then the wheels fell off. Miami should stay above 500 in the preseason cream puff schedule, but then the conference schedule starts.

 

I definitely look for Mario to lose at least one on the road he should win, and will watch as the prevent offense is installed against the ACC with, shall I say, curiosity.

[GeotechDuck]

This is such an interesting topic and it is fun to speculate.  However, I know 1 thing is for certain.  Oregon would have been a lot more fun to watch under Taggart.  His offense was putting up almost 50 PPG before Herbert got hurt.