The Willie Taggart era is officially underway in Eugene.
On Thursday morning, in front of a theatre full of boosters, coaches and media, Taggart was formally introduced as the new head football coach for the University of Oregon. The former USF coach came across as excited, eager and charismatic in his first official appearance as a Duck.
“I can’t tell you how pleased and honored I am to be the head football coach at the University of Oregon,” Taggart said in his opening statement. “The unique and innovative qualities that the Oregon brand poses over the national landscape, provide us with the opportunity to be successful at the highest level on a consistent basis.”
Athletic Director Rob Mullens said that Taggart was everything Oregon was looking for in a head coach.
“He’s full of enthusiasm,” Mullens said. “He connects with players. He’s done two rebuilds. He’s got connections on the west coast. He can recruit. He can build a culture. He has great relationship with players, everywhere we turned. All that was very consistent from everyone that we talked to. Those were the priorities that we looked for.”
Taggart flew in from South Florida late Wednesday night after saying his goodbyes to a program in USF that he turned from a two-win team when he arrived in 2012, into a 10-win team. Many hope that he can do the same for Oregon after the Ducks suffered their worst season since 1991.
He seems confident he can do that and more.
“I’m excited; very excited to have an opportunity to be here at the University of Oregon, a place where I feel like we can win a national championship,” Taggart said. “There’s no reason for us not to.”
Taggart stressed many things that he wants to accomplish as the new Oregon head coach, focusing mainly, though, on academics and culture. He went as far as to repeat “we will excel with our efforts in the classroom and graduate our players” three times.
Taggart is no stranger to rebuilds. Oregon will be considered his third attempt, and while the other two at Western Kentucky and South Florida, were considered successful, Oregon is a much different beast. WKU plays in the FCS. USF has never competed for a national championship like Oregon did just two years ago.
But Taggart said he’ll approach it the same way; by building success off of three core beliefs.
“Make no excuses. Blame no one. Do something,” Taggart said. “We will continue to live by those beliefs as we return this football program to the lofty status it deserves.”
In the meantime, Taggart will review his roster and contact current Oregon commits. He’ll also meet with current Oregon staff members and try to piece together his own staff in the coming days and weeks. One of the many thing he stressed was finding players and coaches that fit the right way for what he wants to accomplish.
“We don’t have to settle for anything,” Taggart said. “We’re gonna go out and recruit the best of the best. We’re not gonna settle for anything less.”
Taggart said that hiring a good defensive coordinator is “first and foremost.” He’ll let whoever that is decide what kind of defense Oregon will run but said that he wants the Ducks to return to a “physical” style of defense.
As far as the offense goes, there may be some change, but nothing dramatic.
“You’ll see some similarities in what we’ve been doing before, but you’ll also see a lot of different things,” Taggart said. “It’ll be spread out; it’ll be up-tempo, it’ll be fast, it’ll be tough, it’ll be exciting.”
Most importantly, Taggart said that he doesn’t want to stray from Oregon tradition. He knows what made Oregon great and wants to get back to that.
“I’m gonna learn more about the University of Oregon and make sure that we don’t necessarily get away from tradition, but we expand on it and become better.”
Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris