Willie Taggart hired: South Florida recruiting will be key for new hire

When the South Florida Bulls hired Willie Taggart from Western Kentucky to be the new head football coach, the hire was almost universally lauded as a great get for the program. Taggart has to basically rebuild the USF program, and he has experience doing tough rebuilding jobs from his time with the Hilltoppers.

SB Nation's USF blog, Voodoo Five, thinks Taggart was a good hire, but are concerned that his preferred style of play on offense may not be a great fit for the program and their place in the Florida college football hierarchy:

Still, I can't help but wonder if he's the best football fit for USF. We know Taggart is straight out of the Jim Harbaugh school -- he wants to run the ball and own the line of scrimmage on offense. But in order to do that, you have to be able to recruit on the offensive line, and that's an area that is not so easy for a school like USF to find quality players. With Taggart coming in, it means that the top five schools in Florida will all run some variation of a pro-style offense. Florida is rich with skill position talent, like backs and receivers, and the defensive back seven. It's not so rich with offensive linemen, though. If everyone's after the same limited quantity (and by everyone I mean the schools in Florida and everyone else who recruits the state), then there won't be enough really good ones to go around.

Aside from offensive line issues, the Bulls badly need to find a quarterback that can play consistently good football. B.J. Daniels will be gone next season, and with him will go the up-and-down offensive performance that the Bulls have dealth with for years. They may not have the right players on the roster to run Taggart's offense right away, but he'll have time to get his system set up.