2021 G5 Preview: That Classic Willie Taggart... Defense?
FAU was bizarre in year one. Can it be good in year two?
ICYMI: This is a part of The Outside Zone’s full 2021 G5 preview series, which last looked at ECU. You can find a master list for all of the previews here.
I wasn’t a fan of Florida Atlantic’s move to hire Willie Taggart to replace Lane Kiffin last offseason. I felt that Taggart needed to take at least a year away from head coaching to give the Florida State failure some air and to reconsider his approach, so that he could avoid a situation like the one that Kevin Sumlin found himself in at Arizona. It’s very, very hard to keep up the energy at the job after the dream job, and that was my biggest worry with Taggart.
For the most part, it still is. FAU didn’t do anything in 2020 to tell me that the Taggart hire was disastrous or that he had nothing in the tank – the Owls finished above .500 and signed the No. 3 class in the CUSA – but it didn’t really dissuade my thinking either. Taggart isn’t known for being an immediate winner, usually taking more time to build out his program, but it’s not like he was walking into a bad spot here either. That 5-4 record doesn’t make me fear for the Taggart era, but it doesn’t amp me up either, if that makes sense. I think it was a slight underachievement relative to the talent, but an understandable one.
However, that doesn’t leave a ton of time for Taggart to build out this program, which, as mentioned, is usually his strength. He inherited a good roster and won’t be afforded the same patience that he was at Western Kentucky or USF. If he has the energy to get out on the trail and to rebuild this offseason, I think that the Taggart-FAU pairing makes a ton of sense and could yield some really good teams. If not… he may be doing TV or coordinating an offense in a few years.
However, as it stands right now, I happen to be leaning towards the latter, despite my original feelings on the hire.
This roster is set up well for FAU to take a step forward, specifically on offense, which is where it needs to improve. The defense returns just about everybody and was awesome last season, but the offense is going to be the key in determining whether this is another .500ish team or a serious CUSA East contender behind Marshall.
Just about everybody on the offense is back. That’s not a great thing in a lot of spots, specifically as it relates to the passing game, but not returning anyone from a bad offense wouldn’t exactly be ideal either. James Charles, Larry McCammon III and Malcolm Davidson are back, and Taggart added USF transfer halfback Johnny Ford (the likely starter), so the rushing attack has talent, I’m just not sold on the guys they’re running behind.
That’s not to say that the line was terrible last year, it just wasn’t consistent. There were plays like the one above where it got the job done really well, but I saw too many players where it just looked like chaos out there, and defenders were able to shoot into the backfield through these massive gaps. I think all four backs here are capable, and I don’t mind the actual design of the run game, but I need to see more consistency up front to consider it a strength.
Michael Johnson is the new man in charge of the offense, though I imagine that he’ll primarily direct the passing game, because former Ohio State, Minnesota and Michigan offensive line coach Ed Warriner is here now too, and was hired alongside Johnson to fix up this offense.
I have mixed thoughts on both. Johnson brings his son, a former four-star quarterback by the same name with him, but his resume just isn’t all that impressive. I don’t think he’s bad, but he’s never impressed me either. Warriner is a deeply hated figure in Ohio State circles, but he’s a good offensive line coach. His issue comes with more responsibility. If he’s calling the plays, FAU is in trouble.
Luckily, it doesn’t seem like he is. He can develop talent at a high level and I’m pretty confident in his ability to scheme up a zone running game, but anything more than that is going to be asking a lot of the journeyman coach. He’ll improve this group and should help to bring about a much better rushing attack, so long as that’s all that he’s being tasked with.
The passing game is the weak point here, but also has reasons for excitement. The big one is the addition of former Miami quarterback N’Kosi Perry, who is instantly the best quarterback on the roster and my presumed starter. Johnson, Nick Tronti, Javion Posey and Willie Taggart’s son by the same name are all going to compete for the job, but Tronti and Posey were fucking terrible last season, and Perry is pretty obviously the most talented of the bunch.
Perry doesn’t have a terrible group of receivers, either. Wideout John Dunmore is here from Penn State, as is tight end Zaire Mitchell from Notre Dame College (not the big one, the small one). John Mitchell is back after missing 2020, and it looks like 2020 leading receiver and former Clemson transfer T.J. Chase is sticking around for his super senior season. Neither he nor Jordan Merrell were especially impressive last season, but we do have to consider the abysmal quarterback play when judging these guys. The passing attack should be better this year, I just wouldn’t expect it to be good.
Interestingly enough, the star of the show here was the defense, which is strange for a Taggart team. Jim Leavitt coordinated an aggressive and versatile group that handled the RPO well and then immediately parlayed it into the same position at SMU (where he’s going to do very well). Taggart brought in Mike Stoops to replace him, which is troubling. Stoops isn’t as bad as he looked at Oklahoma, but he’s no Leavitt, and I fear that he’s going to try to fix something that isn’t broken.
That’s really my only concern here. Just two major contributors are gone, and FAU added Florida State defensive tackle Malcolm Lamar and Nebraska linebacker Keyshawn Greene in the offseason to help bolster the front. The entire backfield, maybe the best part of the roster, is also back, including one of my favorite cornerbacks in the country in Zyon Gilbert. He’s one of the best man coverage players in the country.
That was a lot of FAU’s approach in 2020. It was comfortable enough with its corners to trust them primarily in man coverage, while using linebackers as run-stuffers first and zone defenders second, and box safeties to back up those linebackers when they were fooled by run fakes in the backfield.
It looks a lot like this. FAU asked its safeties to be very aggressive when they saw a play fake or a handoff in the backfield, either to help in run support in the case of the latter, or to do this in the case of the former. Against RPOs, this meant that those safeties would roll into the back and jam the middle of the field, with man coverage outside, essentially taking away the glance RPO while allowing those outside cornerbacks to shield to the outside in the man coverage, knowing that they have help to the inside. It’s a very, very aggressive approach that can get a defense burned badly down the field because of the lack of deep safety help, but when you’re confident in your front and your cornerbacks, it’s a system that makes a lot of sense. FAU was, on both fronts.
This group was also just… mean. Versatile and mean. They used a ton of hybrid players, even on the line, which meant quite a bit more comfort in covering space, be it on screens, down the field, or on outside runs. I have some concerns with how this group would handle a power running game, but there really isn’t one in the CUSA East that I’m afraid of. UAB would have a good time against this defense, but just about everybody in the conference really isn’t built to beat this kind of athleticism in a system like this. I don’t think that Stoops gets the job if he’s threatening to seriously change something that was already working, so I’m not terribly worried about it, but I would like some assurance that he’s going to stick with what was already working.
If he does, this defense should be awesome again in 2021. If the offense can take a step toward competent with an improved passing game and a solid rushing attack, I think that FAU is the strongest contender on the board for that No. 2 spot in the East, though it may be that without the offense. If Perry can really kick things into gear, the Owls may even be a contender to knock off Marshall under its first-year head coach.