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Willie Taggart will return to being more involved in USF offense

 
Published Sept. 19, 2014

TAMPA — Less than a month after relinquishing most playcalling duties to his offensive staff, coach Willie Taggart said Thursday that he will have more input during tonight's American Athletic Conference opener against Connecticut.

Before the season, Taggart tabbed coordinator Paul Wulff and QB coach David Reaves to be the team's primary playcallers so he could focus on managing other facets of the game.

But as USF ranks near the bottom of Division I-A in multiple categories, including passing offense (113th), total offense (113th) and scoring offense (96th), after three games, Taggart said he needs to step back into the decisionmaking process.

"I'm going to be a little more involved in (playcalling)," he said. "I'm going to help out a lot to try and do what we can to get our offense going."

Injuries: OL Thor Jozwiak (shoulder, toe) and RB Darius Tice (sprained knee) will play, Taggart said. WR Andre Davis (bruised sternum) will miss his third straight game.

FSU: Bad call, folks

TALLAHASSEE — Jameis Winston is suspended for the first half against Clemson, which means backup QB Sean Maguire, a redshirt sophomore from Sparta, N.J., will start. In two years, he has only thrown 26 passes for FSU, so considering how big the game is, it seemed a safe bet earlier this week that he wouldn't be playing. His parents apparently made that bet, with the Tallahassee Democrat tweeting: ''FSU backup QB Sean Maguire's parents gave away their tickets to the Clemson game because they didn't think he would play.'' Whoops.

Defending: Coach Jimbo Fisher dismissed criticism that Winston's suspension for a profane and sexually charged outburst was too light. "We're in charge. It's our team. That's our thought. We went with the consequences, and we're ready to move on," he said. Interim president Garnett S. Stokes and AD Stan Wilcox announced the Winston suspension in a joint statement Wednesday. Fisher's name was not on the statement, which raised questions as to whether this was a decision that came down from the administration rather than Fisher. "They're always involved in university policies," Fisher said. "That's things at Florida State, the way we do it."

Tallahassee Democrat; ESPN.com