Florida State fired its men’s football coach, Willie Taggart, on Sunday, a day after an embarrassing 27-10 Seminoles loss to the University of Miami. The dismissal comes just in the second year of Taggart’s tenure as the head coach of FSU.
While Taggart issued a statement saying he was “disappointed” with the decision, he will get paid handsomely to not coach the team — Florida State will pay Taggart a buyout just over $18 million, according to USA TODAY Sports.
But that’s not the entirety of the buyouts the Seminoles will end up paying to have had Taggart coach them for a couple of years. They will pay three separate buyouts when all is said and done.
Before Taggart joined Florida State last year, he had spent one year as the head coach of the Oregon Ducks, following a successful run at South Florida. When the Seminoles hired Taggart away from Oregon, they agreed to pay out his $3 million buyout to end his contract with the Ducks. Florida State also agreed to pay out an additional $1.3 million that Oregon still owed South Florida when they hired him away from that school in 2016.
So, in the end, Florida State will have paid over $20 million, across three buyouts, so that Taggart could go 9-12 with them in 21 games.
ESPN’s Mark Schlereth reported that the Seminoles had raised $20 million from its boosters in order to pay off the buyout, though a school official denied that claim to ESPN.
