Odds on Florida State’s next coach if Willie Taggart is fired

Florida State improved to 2-2 on Saturday, but that doesn’t mean Willie Taggart is off the hot seat. Here are the odds for his likeliest replacements.

The Florida State Seminoles were able to get their second win of the season on Saturday afternoon by defeating the division rival Louisville Cardinals 35-24 at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee. Wins are good, but the play we’ve seen out of the Seminoles under head coach Willie Taggart has been lackluster at best for the last year and change.

Replacing Jimbo Fisher at Florida State has been tough sledding for the former Oregon Ducks, South Florida Bulls and Western Kentucky Hilltoppers head coach, but Taggart should be having more success than this at this traditional power. So it’s understandable why Taggart finds himself on the hot seat.

According to Sportsbetting.ag, here are the odds for who will be the likeliest next head coach of the Seminoles should Florida State part ways with Taggart at some point this season.

• Dino Babers, Syracuse Orange (+250)
• Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State Cowboys (+300)
• Dave Clawson, Wake Forest Demon Deacons (+400)
• Matt Campbell, Iowa State Cyclones (+500)
• Urban Meyer, FOX college football analyst (+700)
• Josh Heupel, UCF Knights (+800)
• Scott Frost, Nebraska Cornhuskers (+1,200)

Even if the Seminoles have been largely bad for the last three years or so, this is still one of the better jobs in the country. Florida State has a rich football tradition, having won three national titles and had three outstanding players when the Heisman Trophy. Florida is a talent-rich football state and the Seminoles play in a less competitive ACC when compared to the nearby SEC.

Looking at the seven names listed by Sportsbetting.ag, three of which are intriguing, two seem like reaches at this point and two have no shot of happening. Let’s start with the three that make the most sense of these magnificent seven names.

The Syracuse Orange’s Dino Babers has the best odds at +250, followed by Mike Gundy of the Oklahoma State Cowboys at +300 and Dave Clawson of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at +400. These feel like the three best, or likeliest, candidates, at this point.

Babers has done a remarkable in his four years at Syracuse. He gets the most out of players that tend to lack the talent of their ACC counterparts he goes up against. Before arriving in Syracuse in 2016, Babers spent two years with the Bowling Green Falcons in the MAC. Before that, he was Jimmy Garoppolo’s head coach with the Eastern Illinois Panthers in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Gundy has been with his alma mater’s program since 2005. He has won well over 100 games in Stillwater, as well as the 2011 Big 12 Championship. One would think that he’s living the dream as the Pokes head coach, but that may no longer be the case. Gundy has begun to grow frustrated with various things surrounding the Oklahoma State program, so a move to the ACC is possible.

Clawson is in a similar boat as Babers in the ACC Atlantic. He has taken the Demon Deacons to respectability in his five years and change in Winston-Salem. Clawson had been Babers’ predecessor at Bowling Green before taking the Wake Forest job. He also has success as a head coach in the Division I-AA level with the Fordham Rams and the Richmond Spiders.

Gundy may have the higher profile of the three likeliest coaches, but getting him to leave his alma mater after 15 years doesn’t seem promising. Then again, who wouldn’t want to see his signature mullet become an iconic Tallahassee waterfall in North Florida in his new gig?

Babers probably has the edge over Clawson because he’s seen as a great motivator of young men. Clawson probably has the better resume, but either coach could switch ACC Atlantic schools and have success at Florida State. Just imagine what they could do if they got their hands on a traditional power.

The other four coaches listed as potential Taggart replacements are the Iowa State Cyclone’s Matt Campbell, FOX college football analyst Urban Meyer, the UCF Knight’s Josh Heupel and the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ Scott Frost.

Campbell and Meyer are somewhat intriguing candidates for the job. However, neither would probably view Florida State as their first option. Campbell has a sweet gig in Ames. He’ll probably stay in the Big 12 for a while or go work for Jimmy Haslam either with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns or the SEC’s Tennessee Volunteers.

Meyer retired from coaching at Ohio State this past offseason. This isn’t the first time he’s retired from coaching, as he left the Florida Gators about a decade ago before taking the Ohio State job. Meyer will either stay with FOX in his role or take the USC Trojans job if Clay Helton is fired this year. Could you imagine Meyer coaching the Seminoles against Florida? Me neither.

As for the two other potential Taggart replacements, there is no shot for either Heupel or Frost to take this job. Frost is at his alma mater in Nebraska. Though it hasn’t been great in Lincoln for him, it’s unlikely Frost will return to Florida at this time, despite having big success at UCF. Heupel could take the promotion, but he feels too raw as a head coach to lead Florida State in 2020.

Overall, Florida State will be able to get a respectable head coach if the university decides to pull the plug on the Taggart experiment. Babers and Clawson seem like good fits, but if Gundy has had enough of leading Oklahoma State, bring on the Tallahassee waterfall!

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