BOCA RATON, Fla. – Florida Atlantic University’s Hagerty Family Head Football Coach Willie Taggart sat down with the media on Monday and here is what the second-year FAU coach had to say.
TAGGART’S TAKE
Takeaways from Saturday’s game, positives and negatives:
“I think you get a little bit of both. You get so positive and some negative out of that game. I thought that we were sloppy at times in our play. I didn’t think that we were as sharp as we needed to be as a coaching staff on some things as well. A lot of those things that you get in a first game. But I thought our guys played hard. Our guys competed. They showed they can play with them [Florida]. But we made too many self-inflicted wounds to win that game. We didn’t play winning football, winning team football in that game. Our defense got two turnovers and we didn’t do anything with it offensively. We had seven out of 11 drives past the 50-yard line and we didn’t get any scores. We didn’t score as much as we should have. When you are playing a game like that, against a team like Florida, those opportunities come, you have to take advantage of them. We didn’t do it. I felt like we could have played better and you can’t have those turnovers as well.”
True freshmen playing in that big of a game:
“Those guys got a lot of reps in during training camp. We knew going in that they were going to make some freshmen mistakes, but you knew they would play hard. For those guys, it was a good experience for them. From a physicality standpoint going against Florida and seeing what it is like to play against that competition, those guys did some good things in the ballgame. Kind of like everyone else they had some mistakes, had some plays that they wished they could get back as well. I was happy with those guys. Again, we have a young team. I think you will continue to see a lot of young guys playing for us.”
Going into Georgia Southern and a team that is heavy run, what kinds of adjustments are you trying to make?
“I think you are seeing a different style offense when we play Georgia Southern. Georgia Southern is going to run the football. They are going to run, run, run, catch you slipping and throw the football. We have to do a good job schematically. Have our guys in the right position and where we need to be. Have to get them to line up first and foremost, especially against a team like Georgia Southern. There is going to be a lot of responsibilities on our guys and you have to stay true to it. First and foremost, they have to line up to it and then get everybody to the ball, do a great job of everybody tackling and get everybody to the football. We know that is something that will come at us, and we can’t give up rushing yards like that.”
