- Willie Taggart, currently Stanford’s running back coach, is announced as the new head coach of Western’s football team at a press conference on Monday. Taggart spent eight seasons at Western as an assistant coach before spending three years as the running backs coach at Stanford University. CHRIS WILSON/HERALD
Western’s head coaching search committee whittled down a list of more than 90 candidates in two weeks’ time, Athletics Director Wood Selig said on Monday.
Selig said they interviewed four candidates from all over the country.
As the committee mulled over the interviews on Sunday, one candidate sat anxiously at a Bowling Green Bob Evans restaurant, waiting for the call that would keep him at home.
The decision was made at about 6 p.m. Sunday to name former Toppers running back and assistant coach Willie Taggart as the football team’s 17th head coach, bringing him back to the Hill after three seasons as running backs coach at Stanford University.
“When I left here, I left here for a reason — to prepare myself for an opportunity if it ever happened,” Taggart said. “This is an opportunity of a lifetime to come back home … it’s like a dream come true.”
Taggart joins volleyball coach Travis Hudson, women’s basketball coach Mary Taylor Cowles and track and field coach Erik Jenkins as current Western head coaches that graduated from the university.
President Gary Ransdell compared Taggart’s hiring to that of Jimmy Feix, who graduated from Western in 1953 and was named the head coach 15 years later. Taggart graduated in 1998.
“We’ve had a lot of great quarterbacks, but the two greatest of all are Jimmy Feix and Willie Taggart,” Ransdell said. “This is the first time that we’ve hired an alumnus in the job since Jimmy Feix, and that analogy is important to all of us who care deeply about this university family and this football program.”
Taggart was a member of the Western coaching staff from 1999-2006, spending time as wide receivers coach, running backs coach, co-offensive coordinator and eventually assistant head coach. He then left to join former Western coach Jim Harbaugh at Stanford.
Selig said Taggart was a logical fit for the job given his experiences at Western — not only as a coach, but as a student athlete.
“Willie is a well-known commodity by WKU and by football fans everywhere,” Selig said. “Sometimes the best choices are the obvious ones. Willie Taggart is the perfect fit and the ideal person to lead WKU football as we move forward in our (Football Bowl Subdivision) transition.”
As quarterback for the Toppers from 1995-1998, Taggart set 11 school records.
He is one of only four players in program history to have his jersey retired.
Taggart said he expects to win right away, recruit only the best student athletes to Western and use his familiarity to motivate a turnaround of the football program, which is in the midst of an 18-game losing streak under current Head Coach David Elson.
“Western is in my DNA,” Taggart said. “One thing about me, you don’t have to retrain me in the community. I know where to go. I’ve bled red since day one, and I know everything about Western Kentucky. I know what it takes to win here at Western Kentucky, and I know what type of athlete we want here, and I know what direction we want to go with at this program.”
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