#nole you ridiculous man

[bluespring864]

now this is the kind of ridiculous tennis "drama" I enjoy

#i am laughing so hard #also i sent this to so many mutuals before i realised i could just post it 😅 #novak djokovic #tennis #nole you ridiculous man

[drabblemesilly]

Nolan Patrick #1

Requested by Anon: Hi! Can you do something about nolan patrick about hanging out on a roof, watching the sky. Something angsty but soft please! thank you

*Here you go! I LOVED writing this one. I hope you find this all right. Enjoy! :)*

Word count: 1,117

The panting gave him away. If you were to judge only by how he sounded like a lifelong chain smoker who just finished a marathon, you wouldn’t think that Nolan Patrick is a professional athlete. Correction, not just a professional athlete – the second overall draft pick of his class.

“I knew you’d be here,” he hoisted himself with one arm supporting his weight, cheeks red from the climbing, “this is not as easy as I remember it,” he muttered grinning, stooping to avoid slipping from the roof, “how were we able to climb this in two minutes when we were younger?”

“I don’t know,” you leaned back, scooting a little so he can take his usual seat beside you, “I can still climb it like before.”

“Harhar,” he rolled his eyes, bracing himself with his arms, “and I play for the Lakers,” he sighed, looking up at the sky, “no stars tonight, eh?”

“No stars for the past decade, to be honest,” you corrected him, looking at the sky reflecting the city lights, “remember when we’d make up our own constellations?”

“Oh man,” he sniggered, thinking about all the ridiculous names you called your made up constellations, “we had one named Brind’Amour after they won the Cup.”

“The constellation that looked like a hockey stick,” you joined him, “we even made up a theory that it only comes out every seventeen days.”

He looked sideways at you, “you even marked your calendars for its return.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

Nolan Patrick plays as big a part on your childhood as your parents did. He was – is – your partner in crime. He was the Robin to your Batman, the Bucky to your Captain, the Geno to your Sid. You don’t have a single memory before twelve that did not involve him.

And then he decided that hockey was for him and you let the sport take your best friend away from you.

“Remember when I fell down the roof?” he asked.

You snorted at the memory of you watching him, wide eyed, as he slipped and fell. You thought he was gonna break his head open but, “that was the day we discovered your head was as hard as a concrete.”

It’s funny now but when you were eight and he was falling, all you wanted to do was scream and jump after him. His mom nearly had an aneurysm because of that. Your parents never let you back on the roof after. Obviously, you weren’t really stickler for rules.

“You forget that I am THE Nolan Patrick,” he lifted his shirt sleeve and flexed his muscles, “one and only.”

Poking his bicep, you scoffed, “there was a time when you were just a scruffy little boy who stole jars of peanut butter and fell down roofs. You also had the worst teeth.”

Nolan playfully opened his mouth, as wide as it gets, and shoved his face a few inches in front of you, “I think my head is now proportioned to how big my teeth are,” he laughed.

Pushing him away from you, “you’re disgusting. I wonder why girls fall over themselves just to get with you.”

He jokingly clutched his chest, “I am a prime hockey player.”

“Tell that to Mat,” you elbowed him, “who won the Calder,” you egged him.

“Just to be clear,” he held up a hand to your face, “you’re the worst.”

“I know,” you grinned smugly at him.

There was a moment of silence, making you feel like everything is back to normal. Making you feel like you were back to being eleven, sitting on the roof, imagining that the airplane that just passed above you was a wishing star. You’d both clasped your hands together, close your eyes tightly, and concentrate on your deepest desires. Nolan always wished that he was a professional hockey player. You always wished you were married to the professional hockey player that he was going to be.

Maybe some dreams really do come true, eh? It came true for him.

“What are you smiling about?” he asked, resting an arm around your shoulder.

“I wish Maddie were just downstairs waiting to chew the hell out of us for hanging out here,” you laughed, “she used to get so mad every time sneaked out when we definitely weren’t allowed to come up.”

“Oh my gosh,” he gasped, taking in air before imitating his older sister, “NOLAN I WILL TELL MOM ABOUT THIS! SHE’LL TAKE AWAY YOUR ICE TIME!”

“I reckon they always knew we were up here anyway.”

“True,” he agreed, pulling his knees up and laying on the tiles, pulling you down with him.

Nolan still had an arm around your shoulder and you stopped yourself from breathing hard, afraid that you might wake up and figure out that this was all a dream. That Nolan wasn’t really here, that your imagination was getting the best of you.

Because, really, why would he be here and not in Philly or wherever he should be?

They don’t live in the house next to yours anymore. Actually, you haven’t even seen him in two years, you haven’t talked to him in more.

Twisting your head, you studied his face.

He still had his perpetual blush, his nose still was still a little bit crooked, his hair was still unkempt, and he still looked like he was planning something absurd to piss you off. He looked like the same Nolan from all those years ago.

Except he’s not the Robin to your Batman anymore. Or the Geno to your Sid. He’s now the Nolan to TK.

“What?” he whispered, looking down at you, his breath tickling your cheek.

“What are you doing here, Nole?” whispering back, still afraid that he will vanish right in front of you.

He smiled at you softly, brushing a stray strand of hair away from your face, “remember when we were kids,” he started, looking back at the sky, “I told you that I’m gonna find you, wherever you are, and we’re going to celebrate all the birthdays and holidays that we missed? No matter how long it’ll take?”

He did promise you that, just before he moved to Brandon. He told you that he will find a way to see you, no matter what… because you were the Sid to his Geno.

“Yeah,” you answered, your voice barely audible.

“Well, this is me finding you,” he looked at you like he was in the right place, like he was meant to be here, on the already rickety roof of your childhood home.

You watched him lean towards you, placing a soft kiss on your forehead, “happy birthday, kid,” he whispered, “I’m back.”

#nolan patrick #nolan patrick imagines #hockey imagines #nhl imagines #drabble #drabbles #my writing #fanfic #Philadelphia Flyers

[katieamazeballs]

Another recap for you all, because I am sadly single and had nothing better to do than sit at home on Saturday night and drink wine.

Val - Boy is stupidly indecisive and keeps changing his team name. He refuses to accept that the people have spoken and have said their team name is Valmani. He called us squares and like the true younger sibling that he is, decided on a hand me down name suggestion from Maks and Amber last year. He’s decided we must call them Team BootyandtheBeast. Not gonna happen, no matter how well you guys are dancing on day 2.

Emma - Is the absolute cutest and instastoried herself in the gym at 1:30am trying to come up with choreography while listening to 80's and 90's music over the gym sound system. Where is this gym....I need to go there.

Witney - She and her cute hubby have flown to Hawaii for a day to shoot something for a travel magazine. She was in complete awe over multiple bathrooms and their fancy toilets. Kindof a risky move on day 2 of official practices when your partner is Chris Kataan.

Gleb - He and Erica have decided on a team name and it’s disgusting. I now don’t sideeye Jana as much for the attempted shipping shenanigans last season. What the hell kind of team name is Team PrettyXXXpen$ive……..this is a family show!!! He should stick to modeling his line of underpants.

Keo - He and Charo picked the absolute most predictable name possible and have gone with Team CuchiCuchi. He has got his hands more than full with that one. She made him wear a flower on his shirt because she can’t dance on Saturdays unless her partner is wearing a flower on his shirt. Also, if she doesn’t do well in the premier, she’s going to move to Boston Massachusetts, because neither Keo nor the producers will be able to find her in Boston Massachusetts. #charologic

Lindsay - Managed to come up with the most epic team name and has gone with LadyAndTheGramp. She also made my heart happy and got decked out in garnet and gold and went to a FSU basketball game. Go Noles!!! ❤️💛❤️💛 Later, she had insomnia and decided the cure was a frosted strawberry pop tart…..because in Lindsay’s world, sugar is a sleep aid.

Maks - His parenting dreams have come true and he strapped the world cutest Ballroom Prince to his “big man chest” and set off about town. Thus cueing swoon #1. Apparently half the Russian fam is in town and someone, not sure if it’s him of Val, hosted poker night for all the hot Russians.

Jenna - Started taking dance classes and decided to sit up, in her bed that she owns in the apartment that she pays for, and take a picture of her bruised knees. This set the Tumblr anons off accusing her of bragging about sleeping with her ex. Let the poor girl live!!! And speaking of living…..Brittany did us all a solid and not only made us feel better about spending our Saturday nights cleaning and drinking copious amounts of wine, but filmed Jenna during the process. Apparently inspiration strikes Jenna after a glass of wine or 7 and she then choreographs ridiculous dances in the living room wearing a headpiece and her underwear. Jenna is pretty much the best. #laundrydaystruggles

Pierson - Got my hopes up and tweeted a bunch of stuff, but it was all work related and we’re back to trying to figure out this strange love triangle.

Bonner - Went to the sauna maybe alone or maybe with Sharna, whom he tagged, and sweated it out to get his mind right. He then instastoried their car ride somewhere and proved Sharna is the most adorable thing ever. He deleted it not long after in a preview of what was to come. Later, he posted a fangirl picture with a strange filter and tagged some account that’s not Sharna. Then he edited the caption. Then he deleted the pic, zoomed in on it, added the same edited caption and posted it. After which, he deleted then posted a different fangirling picture of Sharna with the same caption. Girl has got him all discombobbled. Thus commencing swoons number 2 through I lost count. Boy seriously can’t make up his mind and it’s so adorable. Sharna has yet to follow him on social media and I can’t figure out why.

Right about the time of the 47th Sharna tribute, I decided I’d had too much to drink and put @emma-sharna-slay in charge of babysitting him for the night. She’s awesome like that. No fears though…. @rae1105 has stepped up and volunteered to be his social media manager which means she can no longer drink or go on dates with hot cowboys because Little Boy Blue likes to post his most epic material late at night, he will delete it 8 seconds later (you see what I did there) so….look alive and screen shot quickly.

#ineedahashtagforthese #imintoodeepwiththisshow #donteffthisupcowboy #butwherespierson

[junker-town]

Mark Richt’s live tweeting ‘Nacho Libre’ for his birthday

The Miami head coach turned 58 on Sunday.

On your birthday, you can pretty much do whatever you please, it’s your day! There’s a variety of ways people choose to celebrate their birthdays. On Sunday, Miami head coach Mark Richt was celebrating his 58th birthday. How did he choose to ring in the big day? By watching the movie Nacho Libre, of course.

Watching Nacho Libre with my wife on my birthday! It doesn’t get any better than this! U Family pic.twitter.com/x6lWxONbaj

— Mark Richt (@MarkRicht) February 18, 2018

Maybe I’m the only one, Richt live-tweeting this movie is hilarious to me.

More fun! pic.twitter.com/OCy4MM1DhD

— Mark Richt (@MarkRicht) February 18, 2018

If you aren’t familiar with the Jack Black film from 2006, it’s about a monk who pursues his dream of being a Mexican wrestler, or Luchador. Yes, the film is as ridiculous as it sounds:

Richt doesn’t exactly not strike me as a Nacho Libre on his birthday kind of guy, but again — he can do what he wants!

The Canes head coach is one of the most likable, and straight-laced guys in college football. For example, after Miami’s win over FSU last season, some Canes players began simulating digging a grave over the FSU logo. Richt came in hot and put a stop to that real quick, to say the least.

#Canes coach Mark Richt telling his players to get off the Seminole head after #Miami win #GoCanes pic.twitter.com/Vv3qqztDVv

— Carlos Pineda (@CarlosFPineda) October 8, 2017

The rebuke was swift, and there’s an audible “ass” in there. Richt was, at least for a moment, pretty upset about this.

There are likely a few things at play. First, Richt got his biggest break in coaching from his time at Florida State. He was Bobby Bowden’s offensive coordinator, and from there became Georgia’s head coach. There’s an ingrained respect for the institution. There’s also the fact that he knows that that will become bulletin board material for next season for the Noles, and tempers might have flared if there happened to be any FSU players still around.

Richt is also a pretty pious fellow. It’s not a veneer, and that’s not me poking fun. He’s just a pretty staunchly Christian man.

One of his former players, Garrison Smith, said this about him a few years ago:

“I’ve seen coach Richt so mad one time that he almost said a cussing word. He said fiddlesticks,” Smith said. “A lot of people put on that façade of being a Christian guy and it’s just a tool that they use. I can honestly say, and I’m a stand-up guy, that coach Richt, he’s a genuine guy.”

But it’s not like Richt can’t have some fun.

"I've been coaching 33 years and I've never had more fun than just now." - @MarkRicht pic.twitter.com/1rDASp4VI6

— Canes Football (@CanesFootball) October 9, 2017

Happy birthday, Coach Richt! Enjoy your day.

[auburnfamilynews]

Another home SEC game means another big recruiting weekend for Auburn.

A late recruiting article is better than none right?

Auburn once again plays host to an SEC team from Mississippi this weekend and will once again have a number of top 2018, 2019 and 2020 prospects on campus. Last weekend, the Tigers hosted some big time recruits who were able to witness in person Auburn’s beatdown of Dan Mullen’s Bulldogs. Benjamin Wolk over at SECCountry put together a great recap of last week’s visitors including two 2019 prospects that have the Tigers on top.

This week the list might be even more impressive. Based off reports from 247, SECCountry and Twitter, here’s who is expected on the Plains this weekend.

4* OG Trey HIll

4* WR Justyn Ross

4* QB Joey Gatewood (Auburn Commit)

4* ATH Harold Joiner

4* WR Seth Williams

4* DT Coynis Miller

4* WR Anthony Schwartz

4* RB Asa Martin (Auburn Commit)

4* S Quindarious Monday (Auburn Commit)

4* CB Saivion Smith (LSU Transfer)

4* LB Michael Harris (Auburn Commit)

4* Buck Richard Jibunor

3* DE Andres Fox

3* OL Jalil Irvin (Auburn Commit)

3* DL Daquan Newkirk (Auburn Commit)

3* WR Shedrick Jackson (Auburn Commit)

3* OL Kameron Stutts (Auburn Commit)

3* ATH Josh Marsh (Auburn Commit)

NR QB AJ Curry

2019 5* C Clay Webb

2019 4* QB Bo Nix

2019 4* LB King Mwikuta

2019 4* RB Jerrion Ealy

2019 C Louis Smith

2019 DB Donovan Curry

2020 RB Mecose Todd

2020 DE Andy Boykin

For the second straight weekend the #1 player in the state of Alabama, Justyn Ross, will be in Jordan-Hare Stadium. More than likely, Auburn is chasing Clemson right now for the big bodied WR but Auburn’s recent improvement in the passing game should help the orange and blue Tigers stay in the race.

Possibly the biggest visitor of the day will be Coynis Miller. The outstanding defensive lineman will announce his commitment next weekend and it wasn’t completely clear which school he would visit Saturday. The Florida Gators are still his public leaders but Auburn is supposedly a very close 2nd. The Gators were working hard to get Miller back down to Gainesville on an official visit for the LSU game. Instead, the Birmingham native will travel to the Plains on an unofficial visit. Miller is probably Auburn’s top defensive target right now and Auburn would love nothing more than to land his commitment next weekend. Expect Auburn commits Asa Martin and Joey Gatewood to spend a lot of time recruiting the big man. Martin and Miller specifically are close friends. I still think he picks Auburn as of today and him visiting this weekend only gives me more confidence in that prediction.

There’s another big man on campus as well who decided to travel to Auburn instead of going to a “bigger game”. Trey Hill is Auburn’s top remaining OL target. The big man was long considered an UGA lean but recently it sounds like Auburn and Florida State have made a major push. With the Noles facing Miami this weekend it’s a pretty positive sign that Hill chose to visit Auburn instead Tallahassee. I admit that I lean posibarner but I really like Auburn’s chances with Hill right now, especially if Auburn continues to put together a strong season.

Finally, keep an eye on former 5* LSU signee and now the top rated JUCO CB prospect, Saivion Smith, who is expected to visit today with his teammate and Auburn commit Daquan Newkirk. The Tigers want to sign at least one cornerback and Smith has emerged as a top target for that position. Right now, Alabama is considered the team to beat and honestly it might be hard to overtop them. However, whenever a kid visits you always got a shot. If Auburn can impress him today they might be able to make a run for the 6’1” 175 lb DB. He has immediate impact potential.

I don’t expect any commitments this week but if there were someone to pull the trigger the two names to watch are Richard Jibunor and Seth Williams. Jibunor has long been on commit watch for the Tigers but the Florida Gators are making a big push. I expect Auburn puts on the full court press this weekend and would love to lock him down today if possible though I expect he holds off on any decisions. Williams is a guy the Tigers have done an outstanding job recruiting and have emerged as his leader. Today could be a great opportunity to showcase Auburn’s rejuvenated passing offense and could possibly convince him to pull that trigger earlier than expected. I don’t expect either to commit today but definitely two guys to keep an eye on.

Justin Fields Commitment

If you haven’t heard by now, 5* QB Justin Fields committed to the Georgia Bulldogs yesterday. When Fields first decommitted, Auburn was considered one of the top threats at landing the stud QB’s signature. However, as time passed, the Tigers began to fall behind in the race as Kirby Smart and company made a big time push, ultimately snagging the #1 overall player.

It stinks to lose out on a top talent but this was far from a must have kid for Auburn. The Tigers already have a big time QB committed in 4* Joey Gatewood who is putting together a ridiculous senior season. The longtime AU commit reaffirmed he’s all AU yesterday afternoon.

Been committed for 3 years & not changing #WarEagle ..

— Joey Gatewood (@Joey1gatewood) October 6, 2017

The real question moving forward is will Auburn take a second QB? It’s far from certain though I imagine the coaching staff would like to have 4 guys on scholarship next year. Keep an eye on AJ Curry who is having a breakout senior year and will be on campus this weekend. There’s also 3* Steven Krajewski who camped at Auburn over the summer and whose coach is close with Chip Lindsey. Also guys like 3* James Foster (Missouri Commit), 3* Cordell Littlejohn (former Illinois Commit) and 4* Jarren Williams (Kentucky Commit) are all names to file away.

Bottom line is while seeing an elite player like Fields go to a rival isn’t fun, the Tigers should be just fine moving forward. Gatewood gives the Tigers a kid with tremendous upside and the potential to have just as dynamic a career as Fields. Over the next few months we should get a better feel for if the Tigers plan to add a 2nd QB or not.

War Eagle!

from College and Magnolia http://bit.ly/2y1YNPj

#IFTTT #Blogger #auburn #auburn fast #wareagle #AuburnFamilyNews #war eagle #sec #football news #aubu

[junker-town]

Willie Taggart’s ready to find out what happens after your dream comes true

How Taggart went from being ‘the third Harbaugh’ to landing the job he always wanted.

On Thanksgiving morning, 2016, then South Florida head coach Willie Taggart sat behind his desk in the dark, staring at cut-ups — video clips of particular plays — of Central Florida’s defense on a big TV, twirling the remote in his hand.

Occasionally one of a number of cell phones on his desk would brighten. South Florida was one game away from a 10-win season that would vault Taggart into the national conversation as A Coach On The Rise. Two weeks later, he’d accept an offer from Oregon.

Taggart’s life was changing one ping at a time on those phones, but he never looked like his attention was away from the UCF tape. This was, and is, behavior typical of a man who’s built a career by looking exceedingly relaxed in highly stressful situations. Taggart created his shell of ineffable cool to subconsciously reassure 19-year-olds who are easily spooked.

“Players see everything,” Taggart said to SB Nation this summer. “They act like they aren’t paying attention, but they see everything.”

I sat across from Taggart in total silence, trying to act like I saw the same thing he did in UCF’s formations. Eventually I gave up and started scrolling through Twitter on my phone. That broke his silence.

“They say anything about Jimbo?” he asked, still clicking through cut-ups.

Jimbo Fisher, then Florida State head coach, was in that moment considered to be neck and neck with Tom Herman, then Houston head coach, for the LSU job. (Ed Orgeron would end up taking the job 24 hours later.)

I asked him why he cared.

“Florida State. Hooooo, man,” he started smiling. “That’s it. That’s the dream job.”

He paused for a beat.

“All I’ve ever wanted.” He said it in such a genuine way, with no apparent ulterior motive. It was (and is) strange to hear a coach talk like that.

“I’m pretty sure LSU is going with Tom Herman,” I told him.

He clicked through another play.

“Florida. State ...,” he said, still staring at the TV.

A dream job — a legitimate dream job, not the frequent Todd Graham-style political appropriation of the term — is probably too naive a concept for most football coaches to hold with much conviction. Sure, there’re destination gigs and big paychecks. But a real dream job? The business is too aggressive, the expectations too ridiculous, for anyone to earnestly admit they really want to coach one particular team because of the same emotional connections we rank-and-file fans hold.

Yet new FSU head coach Willie Taggart has won the hearts of his constituency by putting his on his sleeve since his hiring in December.

On paper, Taggart’s path to the job makes little sense. He’s replacing a national title winner at one of the best jobs in the sport after just one 7-6 season at Oregon, his first as a Power 5 conference head coach.

But he’s a fierce recruiter and current purveyor of the Gulf Coast offense, renamed “Lethal Simplicity” for Tallahassee, and his perks — not to mention his uncanny fit with FSU’s culture — are all absent from his win-loss total.

He’s Floridian, to the bone, and as a black man and former high school football star, he’s also a mirror to the majority of his roster. Demarcus Christmas is a senior defensive tackle who played for Taggart’s alma mater of Manatee in Bradenton, 25 years after Taggart did.

“Now I have a great opportunity, really,” Christmas said. “Him coaching me and us being from the some place, this can show people back home that they can make it and they can do great things. I’m not looking into becoming a coach, but his success shows how much you can achieve, not just in a football perspective.”

Taggart’s also a Florida State fan. A fan, full stop. He’s not “an admirer of their tradition” or “respectful of their success” like another coach might be, but an actual posters-on-the-wall, cheering on Saturdays fan by birth. His family tailgated in the parking lot of spring games, barbecuing alongside regular-season ticket holders. When he was head coach at South Florida and the Bulls played FSU, his own brother refused to change out of FSU gear for the game.

That means the real fans don’t scare him. When you’re a member of the same congregation, no behavior is really that weird if it’s an expression of a shared faith.

“I was driving around Tallahassee one day this summer, and I’ve got tinted windows. You can’t see in. This guy is out in the street and starts going [Taggart waves frantically], just crazy. And I pull over. I think something’s wrong, like he needs help,” Taggart said. “I roll the window down and he starts yelling, ‘COACH! COACH! WELCOME TO TALLAHASSEE! BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE BEHIND NO TINT IN TALLAHASSEE, COACH!’

“That was it. And I was like … ’you gotta be kidding me.’ But I was one of those fans growing up. I knew everything about Florida State football. I get it. How they feel, how he feels, that’s how I feel.”

Taggart’s climb to Florida State head coach started the day he left home to play quarterback at I-AA Western Kentucky for Jack Harbaugh — father to John and Jim, head coaches of the Baltimore Ravens and Michigan, respectively. Manatee High School quarterback Willie Taggart, 26-4 as a starter, loved FSU, but it was unrequited. No one in Florida recruited him to play college ball.

“No offers. I was just a skinny little dude,” he says. “That’s why I’m hard on [our players]. Little bit of envy! I tell em all the time, ‘I envy you guys. This is really special. And I need y’all to treat it that way.’”

Taggart won an I-AA national title as an option quarterback at Western Kentucky, but his playing career became an extension of a coaching apprenticeship in the Harbaugh family. Immediately after his eligibility ended, he joined Jack’s staff, eventually becoming offensive coordinator and assistant head coach before going to work at Stanford for Jim Harbaugh as running backs coach.

By the time he left Palo Alto in 2010 to come back to Bowling Green as head coach, Taggart was already considered another Harbaugh son, both in their family and the greater coaching community.

“I never could get to him in practice, he was so slippery,” former WKU linebacker and FSU director of player development Trae Hackett said. “But I knew you couldn’t really touch him. He had an uncanny ability to avoid getting hit as a quarterback. But you always knew, that was Willie Harbaugh.”

Hackett was a co-captain with Taggart and is one of three FSU staffers to work with Taggart through his entire coaching run.

WELCOME TO TALLAHASSEE! BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE BEHIND NO TINT IN TALLAHASSEE, COACH!

In far-flung Bowling Green, Kentucky (Taggart never left his home state until college), he stuck out immediately as distinctively Floridian.

“He was just like the Florida guys who would come in the program — laughing and smiling all the time. And then it’s all about the competitiveness. It was always there, no matter what you were doing in practice, even just running. Everything was competitive and yet always fun. Always loose. But then when you look back now, you realize [that attitude] is a wise choice,” Hackett said.

In the wake of Jimbo Fisher’s messy divorce from FSU, Taggart’s lifelong affection for his new employer is more than just charming; it’s tactical messaging. It’s rebranding.

Entering 2017, Fisher, Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, and Dabo Swinney were the only four coaches with national championship wins at their current jobs. But unlike healthier push-and-pull relationships between those other championship coaches and their donor bases, Fisher and FSU boosters soured on each other’s vision.

Not long after Fisher won Florida State a national championship in 2013 — all that fans could ask for, and the best bargaining chip the coach could use to rally money to his projects — his name surfaced as the leading candidate for jobs at other Power 5 schools.

Fisher came with constant demands for expensive improvements he wanted commitments to as quickly as possible*. But at Florida State, boosters are organized in a LLC independent of the athletic department, and thus exists a power dynamic unlike that of other major athletic programs.

“What’s interesting is that if you donate to Florida State boosters, it’s not guaranteed that your money is going into football. They really pride themselves on their dedication to Olympic sports,” Florida State booster and alumnus Robin Alston said.

Also, there just wasn’t that much money. Comparatively, at least.

If you’re younger than 40 you probably think of Florida State as a football powerhouse equal to an Ohio State or Alabama or USC. And on the field they are, but the history of the school still puts them in a sort of debt relative to other football powerhouses.

Florida State was a small women’s college until the G.I. Bill forced the state to enroll men after World War 2. Football didn’t begin until 1947. It wasn’t nationally relevant until Bobby Bowden’s arrival in 1976. So while the ‘Noles would become two-time national champions and redefine FSU as a modern force in the sport from the 1980s through now, the massive endowments built by other major universities didn’t exist at a formerly tiny teacher’s college in the panhandle. To pick a not-so-random example, Texas A&M had an $11 billion endowment as of 2018, compared to Florida State’s $700 million.

The friction over money and Fisher’s constant teasing with the job market boiled over when quarterback Deandre Francois was injured against Alabama in last season’s opener. The ‘Noles flopped from national title contention, culminating in a 35-3 loss at Boston College to push them to 3-5. When Fisher’s name surfaced in the job market again weeks later, this time at A&M, a growing number of influencers around FSU shrugged. He left a $5.5 million salary guaranteed through seven more seasons in Tallahassee for Texas A&M’s staggering all-guaranteed $75 million offer.

“Only in America. Only in America you get promoted from going 5-6 to a $75 million job,” former Florida State board of trustees member Leslie Pantin said.

* One night before FSU’s 2018 began, the Noles announced Taggart’s donating $1 million of his own toward facilities.

Shortly after becoming FSU athletic director during the 2013 national title season, Stan Wilcox had prepped to make a coaching hire — only the third in modern program history — each time Fisher’s name was floated for another job.

The former Notre Dame basketball player and legal analyst in New York City had navigated a lengthy enough path between the executive (jobs at the NCAA and Big East Conference) and school levels (Notre Dame, Duke) to build a Rolodex deep enough not only to debunk rumors, but also keep a fresh short list of potential head football coaches.

“There were always rumors,” Wilcox said. “The thing that as an athletic director, as big as collegiate athletics is, it’s a small world. I always knew enough people at places to find out whether or not [a rumor] was true. Because a lot of time it’s just rumors started by outside individuals.”

Though he’d heard that Taggart had a soft spot for Florida State.

“You’ve got to play the ‘What if’ game. You try to always survey the landscape as to who is out there, and who is hot, just knowing what the coaching landscape looks like at the moment.”

Glenn Beil-USA TODAY Sports

Willie Taggart, left, is welcomed by athletic director Stan Wilcox

Except Willie Taggart wasn’t really out there at that moment. Just as FSU had grown accustomed to Fisher’s name floating around every December, so too had Taggart. He’d moved on from his dream job for the time being and was settled in at Oregon, finishing an injury-plagued 7-6 first season after restocking the Ducks’ recruiting with a heavy dose of Sunshine State prospects.

Taggart knew that bolting on Oregon — and almost as importantly Nike founder Phil Knight — would be a blow to his perception in coaching circles.

“I’ve always believed I’d get to Florida State, but I definitely didn’t believe it would happen so quick, that it would happen the time that it did. We had a great thing going at Oregon. We knew right after we got there it would take a lot to get us out of there. And there was only one job that would do it [after one season],” Taggart said.

As he privately turned down approaches from SEC programs, Taggart made it quietly known in November that if FSU actually opened, he wanted a shot. His fandom for FSU was known in a few circles, but it still caught Wilcox a bit off guard.

Late in the vetting process to replace Fisher, Wilcox called a current assistant athletic director who had worked with Taggart earlier in his career for a character reference.

“She was telling me how he was the best coach she’d ever worked with, then she said this, and it stuck with me: ‘Stan, you know that’s his dream job, don’t you?’ I said, ‘No, I didn’t.’ She said, ‘Yeah, he was always talking when we were here, about how one day he wanted the Florida State job.’ I said, ‘Well thanks, you may have just helped me make a decision.’”

“I didn’t tell her this, but it also helped with negotiations because I also knew it was his dream job,” Wilcox said, laughing.

But long before Taggart was savvy enough to sell a vision of his program’s culture and the Gulf Coast Offense to people as influential and intimidating as Phil Knight, he was just a rank-and-file assistant coach with a dream and no plan, which nearly blew up his head coaching career before it started.

Western Kentucky was Taggart’s first head coaching job in 2010, but his second shot at the gig. When Jack Harbaugh hand picked Taggart to succeed him following his retirement from WKU in 2002, the young assistant imploded during the interview.

“I wouldn’t have hired me. I wasn’t prepared, that was the biggest problem. I didn’t know how to answer questions about what I would do in all these different circumstances you have to prepare for as a head coach,” Taggart said.

Jack Harbaugh had pushed for Taggart to be interviewed. WKU agreed, but by the time it was over Jack’s protege “third son” felt like he’d failed his old coach.

“For one, I was 25. I wasn’t ready to be a head coach. I’d always figured one day I’d be a head coach but I didn’t think anyone would look at me then. That’s when I started doing the academies,” Taggart said.

Taggart signed up for every offseason coaching academy and seminar he could. This circuit is where aspiring head coaches get crash courses on everything from staff management to speaking skills, basically anything that isn’t pure football. During that time he decided how he’d eventually utilize the often double-edged Rooney Rule, an NFL policy adopted in 2003 that mandates teams interview minority candidates for head coaching and particular front office positions.

There is no official version of the Rooney Rule in the decentralized legislation of college football. Certain states, such as Oregon, have laws for minority interview mandates for any public position, including college football coaches. Some major programs have made a good faith effort to bring in minority candidates for head coaching openings. Other programs have made sure to leak the name of minority candidates to the media to satisfy public criticism of the sport’s lily white head coaching landscape (12 of 130 FBS head coaches are African-American; only seven of those hold Power 5 jobs).

As a young assistant coach, Taggart was sitting in the audience of a minority coaches academy when future Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel spoke about the expanding job market.

“He said, ‘I hear excuses about minority coaches not getting chances to become head coaches. That’s not true. Coaches are getting opportunities, they’re just not doing a good job in those interviews. You’re losing these jobs in the interviews.’ That stuck with me. It stuck with me because I had lost that exact way. For Ward to say that three or four years later, for him to say that, he was talking specifically to me.”

Taggart acknowledges an awareness among his peers that schools commonly bring in minority coaches merely as a box to be checked, with no intention of actually considering them for the job.

To this point in his career Taggart has embraced an extreme — arguably naive — optimism about being brought in for job interviews, even if it is just to check a box. He believes an interview is an interview is an interview. Regardless of the subtext or the politics or the numbers. If you’re the token, if you’re the PR move, it doesn’t matter.

Or rather: “Just get in the room,” as he says to other black coaches.

“You can’t buy in to that [feeling that you’re just there to check a box]. It becomes a weakness, and then it’s a crutch for you to explain why you aren’t where you want to be. You can’t buy into people saying ‘It’s just a Rooney Rule interview.’ By the time I heard that when I was headed out to interview with Oregon, I was like ‘Psssh, bring me in for the Rooney Rule. Great. Now I’m gonna change your mind.’ That was my mentality. ‘Sure, Rooney Rule me, great, bring me in.’ That’s what the Rooney Rule is made for, I think. Get me in, then it’s up to me to change your mind.”

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Wilcox, an African-American athletic director, served on the board of the Black Coaches Association for 11 years, two as president. On Aug. 20, Wilcox was named the NCAA’s new executive vice president for regulatory affairs, ending a five-year run in Tallahassee. Taggart’s hire will almost certainly persist as his defining legacy at FSU, good or bad. That Florida State has a black head coach is an achievement, that he was hired by a black AD holds a connotation Wilcox says he shut out during the process.

“I don’t know how to put it other than you kind of know that, but if you dwell on that you can put yourself in a position where you might not make the right decisions. I was just lucky, because in the position I’m in right now I’ve got to be successful to help others who are minorities to be in my position,” Wilcox says.

“I’ve got to find a successful coach who’s able to come here and win. I have to make sure what I’m doing is right for Florida State. I was just very fortunate that this person, at this time, that was best for this job, just happened to be African-American.

“In our pool, we had minorities and non-minorities. Willie just out-shined the others. I hope the results can be similar to what happened when John Thompson won a national championship in basketball, that more minority candidates can be considered at the highest level. At the end of the day I will have come full circle with my career.”

Having coached at three schools in two years and with a record of 47-50, Taggart was recently named one of the most overrated head coaches in the FBS by his peers in an anonymous CBS Sports poll.

Curious FSU fans and critics alike have a tough time predicting his success, but the single season in Eugene, both in scheme and culture, is the best case study available. And while it’s not much, it’s been good enough for FSU players.

“What I saw on tape at Oregon convinced me to stay. That, and conversations with Coach Taggart. But I turned on the tape and that convinced me,” senior running back Jacques Patrick says.

Patrick could’ve gone pro after last season, but watching film on Taggart’s Duck offense convinced him a senior campaign could be statistically beneficial. Patrick also spoke with Oregon running back Royce Freeman, who, despite Taggart’s one-and-done exit, endorsed the spirit and attitude the staff had created in a short time.

That spirit and attitude is marked by a willingness to listen and trust his players. And, in one memorable instance, completely revamp his offense to fit what they wanted to do.

In 2015, Taggart was on the brink of losing his job at USF — the Bulls were 7-21 in his third season. Taggart had his team running the plodding, pro-style, two-tight-end smash he’d come to revere while working for Jim Harbaugh. It wasn’t working.

The players on the team wanted to run.

“The way we’d been playing in two-minute drills up until that point … it was like their play was screaming at me to make a change. It was ‘Coach, let us go,’ but also ‘Coach you let go, too.’ During that time I was still play-calling. We were better, but I wasn’t used to calling it fast. We were no huddle but I wasn’t really coaching it that way. I had to get faster calling plays and not looking out and calling the perfect play.”

With his job on the line, Taggart listened to his players: He threw out his offense, substituting in a fast, quick, and simple spread that mashed together a power run with Art Briles-era Baylor pass concepts in spread formations.

“That Syracuse game I did it and it was like ‘Holy … ‘ Plays that didn’t work before were clicking. They were having fun and not thinking and could just go. And when you have talented kids that can just go play football, that’s it. To me kids don’t get bad, they get confused. That’s why I go back to lethal simplicity. This is football, not geometry. Keep it simple.”

USF won the game, 45-24. A year later, Taggart took them to an 11-2 record and a win over South Carolina in a bowl game.

In his first offseason with FSU, Taggart is once again throwing out a meticulous and purposefully slow pro-style offense, this one the one the ‘Noles ran under Fisher. This year, FSU is going to move. The new look offense is going to go as fast as humanly possible, with the hopes that it will not only delight fans and boosters looking for something fresh but, more importantly, reinvigorate the current roster and appeal to Florida high school talent running the same style of offense. Oh, and win.

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What Taggart couldn’t have known back in 2015 was that his willingness to listen to his USF roster and ultimately adapt — successfully — to their style would earn him instant credibility with a roster of FSU players he’d once tried to recruit to Tampa.

“We’d already talked to all those other players at USF as soon as we heard he was hired. We saw he showed he could coach but they told us he was real about how he cared about his players,” quarterback James Blackman said.

“I knew right away after talking to Coach I’d be here,” Patrick said. “It wasn’t so much what he said to me as it was how he said it. It was using words like ‘we,’ and the same way you and I are having a conversation right now, that’s how he spoke to me. It’s not like that with other coaches. There’s a lot of ‘I’ and ‘you.’”

Despite his four years in Tallahassee, Patrick met Bobby Bowden this offseason for the first time in his life. Bowden had receded from the program throughout the course of Fisher’s time. Taggart, ever the fan, sought the former coach out. In the summer he turned the documentary “The Bowden Dynasty” into a history class for the roster, supplemented by speeches from former FSU players from the 1980’s and 90’s.

Patrick said he still gets calls from recent Seminoles who are active NFL players.

“This helmet means a lot to a lot of people.”

Willie Taggart turned 42 on Monday. He was an 11-year-old boy in Bradenton, Florida, when Danny McManus under-threw a two-point conversion in the final seconds vs. Miami, ruining the Florida State’s chance at a perfect season. He was 13 when the ‘Noles whooped Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl, 15 for Wide Right 1 and a senior quarterback at Manatee High in 1993 when Charlie Ward won the Heisman and 12-1 FSU won an outright national championship.

He knows all of this by heart, of course. Like a dad sharing his vinyl collection, Taggart’s now fixated on making sure that a bunch of players who were born long after learn the same moments and plays.

“We’ve challenged our guys to reach out to some of the great players who played their position. I think the more they understand the more they’ll give us, and the more pride they’ll take from it,” Taggart said.

“I always had to look at it from the outside. I knew then, and I know now you have to be special to play at Florida State.”