Coach Taggart has done near-impossible at South Florida

One of the toughest things for any coach in college football to do is get a team to start winning when it seems like everyone outside the program is saying you’re on the hot seat. Willie Taggart, South Florida’s 39-year-old coach, though, has done just that.

Taggart, in his third season at USF, is coming off the program's biggest win in five years after his Bulls hammered No. 22 Temple Saturday night 44-23. It’s USF’s fifth win in six games after a 1-3 start. 

The turning point may have come on Oct. 2 after the Bulls lost at home 24-17 to Memphis — USF’s third loss in a row. Taggart, though, noticed how crushed his players were in the locker room after the game. “The guys were hurt, crying,” Taggart told FOX Sports Sunday. “I went home and I told my wife, 'I think we’re onto something.’"

Taggart knew his young team was trying to adapt to a lot of change. He overhauled his staff in the offseason. He also had made a big change on offense going from the pro-style attack that the Jim Harbaugh protégé had to a version of the spread he dubbed the Gulf Coast Offense, where it would go up-tempo and run zone read about 20 percent of the time and now with a dynamic young quarterback in sophomore Quinton Flowers. Taggart also took over as play-caller — something he did back when he was the coach at Western Kentucky.

“We stuck to what we believe in, and we could see it coming from what we were seeing daily in practice,” said Taggart, who went 2-10 in his first season at WKU before turning that program into a bowl team by year three. "Our guys are growing up and they see I have a great staff and how close we are, and they’re all in."

The Bulls have one of the younger teams in the country, starting freshmen and sophomores at both receiver spots, QB, tailback, on the D-line and in three positions in the secondary. In the 6-foot, 215-pound Flowers, Taggart has found an ideal triggerman for his new Gulf Coast Offense who is adept at completing over 60 percent of his passes while also being able to keep defenses on their heels with his feet via running QB draws, QB power or improvised scrambles.

“He’s the real deal,” Taggart said. “He’s an electrifying player who reminds me of (Taggart’s former teammate in high school) Tommie Frazier in that he’s so savvy. You think you have him, and you don’t. Guys can come scot-free on a blitz and he’ll still be able to get out of it.”

Flowers’ best escape this season to Taggart came against Temple, but the QB did it with his mind, not his wheels. Flowers noticed something in the defense where the play would’ve run right into the teeth of an Owls run blitz. Instead, he checked to a different running play, a zone read to the left (the pressure was coming from the right) and tailback Marlon Mack broke free for a 57-yard touchdown run.

Mack, who finished the game with 230 rushing yards and two TDs to go along with three receptions for 42 yards and another touchdown against the AAC’s second-toughest run defense, has emerged as USF’s new star. The 6-0, 200-pounder, a one-time UCLA commit, has gone over 1,000 yards for the second consecutive season and is averaging 6.5 yards per carry, almost a yard and a half more than he did in 2014. 

"He’s silly fast,” Taggart said. “Guys have angles on him and he still pulls away from them. But he also has such good vision and patience to set up blocks.”

Flowers, Mack and the Gulf Coast Offense should have a chance to put up a few more big games with two of the weaker defenses in the AAC up next, at home against Cincinnati before closing the regular season against UCF. Suddenly, an eight-win season looks very realistic.

Bruce Feldman is a senior college football reporter and columnist for FOXSports.com and FS1. He is also a New York Times best-selling author. His new book, “The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks,” came out in October 2014. Follow him on Twitter @BruceFeldmanCFB and Facebook.