5 college football coaching carousel winners

3. Willie Taggart

Oregon didn’t make the best hire of the offseason, as Phil Knight would have likely preferred a reunion with Chip Kelly and Taggart will need to step it up a notch to compete with Chris Petersen and David Shaw year in and year out. However, Taggart himself is undoubtedly a winner of the coaching carousel, as Oregon is a perfect situation for him to walk into.

After being on the hot seat himself just two years ago, Taggart helped South Florida improve to 8-5 in 2015 before going 10-2 this season, the best mark in program history. Taggart has proven his ability to coach an offense, as the Bulls racked up 43.6 points per game to rank seventh in the nation.

While the Ducks were terrible in 2016 at 4-8 overall, they still have some talent on the offensive side of the ball and racked up 35.4 points per game. Taggart will get a chance to develop a promising young quarterback in Justin Herbert, which could pay off in a big way for the Ducks in two or three years.

Having Knight’s financial resources certainly won’t hurt Taggart’s efforts to prove himself as a Power Five coach either. Not only will Taggart earn a healthy $3.2 million salary himself, he was able to hire Colorado defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt, who is now the second-highest paid assistant coach in the nation.

The combination of Taggart’s prowess on offense and Leavitt’s ability to turn around a defense could help the Ducks return to prominence quickly. Taggart should recruit very well in Oregon, as he has numerous connections both in Florida and California after coaching at Stanford from 2007-2009.

Oregon made a risky hire with Taggart, but the pieces are there for him to build a powerhouse a couple of years down the  line.