Editor's Note: Dick Weiss, a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame, has covered college sports in Philadelphia and New York for more than 40 years. He will be providing regular commentary for the American Athletic Conference during the 2014-15 season.
Armed with a roster that now features back-to-back highly rated recruiting classes, Willie Taggart expects to see a dramatically different team on the field in 2015
by Dick Weiss
University of South Florida coach Willie Taggart has been selling the future for the past three recruiting cycles, promoting the fact that the state of Florida produces more than 250 FBS prospects in any one season and that he and his staff are building a program that can complete for an American Athletic Conference championship on a regular basis with in-state prospects who will develop once they get a chance to play.
While The American made three changes among head coaches, USF hung with Taggart, who has produced two straight recruiting classes that were ranked as the best in the conference by at least one recruiting service.
Taggart received National Letters of Intent from 19 prospects Wednesday. They joined one 2015 signee-- four star offensive lineman Reilly Gibbons from St. Petersburg Catholic-- who initially signed with Stanford in 2014, but announced his decision to play closer to home and enrolled at USF in January-- and another early enrollee, linebacker Danny Thomas from Tallahassee Golsby.
Taggart’s third USF recruiting class, his second on a full cycle, was rated the best in The American by 247Sports, giving the Bulls back-to-back classes rated the best in the conference. Rivals ranked the Bulls with the No. 65 class nationally, two spots against of conference rival Cincinnati and better than a handful of Pac-12 and Big 12 programs . The Bulls were ranked second in the conference by Rivals and Scout.
The five-star players who sign at marquee programs in the country like Alabama, USC, Ohio State and the rest of the SEC dominated the ESPN headlines, but Cincinnati coach Tommy Tuberville, who used to coach at Auburn, had the perfect retort for critics who want to use rankings to separate the Power Five conferences from the Group of 5. “
“I think they're a waste of time,” Tuberville told Cincinnati.com. “If you look at the Super Bowl this past weekend, there were maybe four or five starters who were four- or five-star guys. We look at athletic ability. Can they play for us?”
In this brave new world, that is probably the best approach to take.
Taggart is trying rebuild a program that was ranked as high as No. 2 nationally in the AP poll in 2007 and collected as impressive a list of wins as any school nationally – a list that includes victories against Florida State, Auburn, Notre Dame, West Virginia and Miami (Fla.), among others. The Bulls have produced a number of NFL standouts, including 12 players either on active rosters, practice squads or on injured reserve as of the 2014 season. The last two years have been difficult. Taggart, who had huge success at Western Kentucky, went 2-10 in his first season in Tampa and improved to 4-8 last year. Given the last two seasons, Taggart admitted his prospects were hit by a barrage of negative recruitiing.
Among them was three-star tight end Mitchell Wicox, a standout from nearby Tarpon Springs who had 10 FBS offers. By staying loyal, he and his classmates comprised a group that Rivals.com ranked 58th nationally as of early Wednesday evening, ahead of the likes of Iowa, Syracuse, Purdue and Colorado.
“Each person can have their own opinion and I have mine,” Wilcox told the Tampa Bay Times.
“We were going to continue to sell what we've been selling and our vision for our program and where we're going and the opportunities that they have here,” Taggart said. “And if that's not good enough, so be it. Apparently it was good enough.”
This program, which had made six bowl appearances in 15 years at the FBS level and has had 23 NFL draft picks, finally looks like it is on the verge of turning the corner again with local stars. USF returns 14 starters (six offense, seven defense, and one specialist) and players who accounted for 73 percent of the team's tackles in 2014. USF will return 100 percent of its rushing and passing yards from 2014, including 1,000-yard rusher Marlon Mack, the gem of last year's class who ran away with the American Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year award.
“I think obviously we should expect a jump,” Taggart said, “You go into Year 3 and I just look at our roster, and I would say probably about 75 percent of our roster has turned over since we've been here. You expect to see that growth. You expect to see those young guys that we had last year and the year before develop and be a lot better on the football field.”
All of the players in the Bulls’ 2015 recruiting class earned a three-star rating from at least one recruiting service.
The Bulls welcome five players to the roster from the Tampa Bay area, bringing Taggart’s total of Bay Area recruits to 17 in the last two seasons. The Bulls added 19 players from the state of Florida. Only quarterback Brett Kean from St. Edward's of Lakewood, Ohio, and wide receiver Jarvis Baxter from Athens, Texas, who attended Trinity Valley CC; came from out of state.
“He can throw the ball and he can make guys miss. He can extend some plays,'' ' Taggart said of Kean. “But I think more importantly, he's highly competitive and a winner.''
Taggart also has positive words for Jacksonville Trinity Christian two way star Chris Barr, a former Utah commitment who was projected as a defensive back by some scouting services, but will be a wideout at USF.
“I think Chris Barr is going to be a stud for us,'' Taggart said.
USF added nine players on the defensive side of the ball and 12 on offense to its roster.
The Bulls made their offensive line a point of emphasis. Gibbons will be joined by Clearwater Central Catholic's Bill Atterbury, Arizona Western Community College transfer Glen Bethel, who hails from Miami, Flanagan High School's Cameron Campbell and Sebastian River High School's Marcus Norman, who were all three-star recruits.
The Bulls also signed five defensive backs to help Taggart's 4-2-5 defensive secondary. They included Ronnie Hoggins from Monarch High, Malik Vaccaro-Dixonn from Port Charlotte High, Nate Ferguson from Sickles High, Khalid McGee from Miami Northwestern and Jaymon Thomas from Immoklaee.
There is enough speed in this group to make a difference as USF attempts to fuel up the jet.