As Willie Taggart aims to help Florida State return into yearly contention for conference and national titles, he knows the Seminoles have to beat at least one team that has set the standard he wants to achieve in his new tenure.
Clemson is the overwhelming favorite to win the ACC's Atlantic Division and the league championship game for the fourth straight season, the ACC announced Monday after 148 media members casted votes at ACC Kickoff last week.
Clemson earned 139 votes to win the conference, and 145 to win the Atlantic ahead of Florida State, NC State, Boston College, Louisville, Wake Forest and Syracuse.
"In my mind, they're the team to beat," Taggart said of Dabo Swinney's Tigers last week.
"They are at the mountaintop, and everybody is trying to get there."
Miami was picked to win the Coastal Division with 122 votes, ahead of Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Duke, Pittsburgh, North Carolina and Virginia.
If Clemson and Miami were to meet in the ACC title game for the second straight year, they would join Boston College and Virginia Tech (in 2007 and 2008) as the only ACC schools to win consecutive division titles.
Since 2009, only FSU (four times) and Clemson (five times, including the last three seasons) have won the Atlantic crown.
But Taggart knows, in his first season as FSU coach, that focusing solely on topping Clemson should not be in the forefront of his agenda.
"For us, it can't be about Clemson. It's got to be about Florida State and the way we play," Taggart said, hoping to help the Seminoles break a three-game skid against the Tigers.
"We haven't been playing the way we are capable of playing and the way we should be playing. We have to get back to doing those things and everyone has to understand that."
Taggart and Swinney have crossed paths before. After meeting Clemson co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott, Taggart took a trip to absorb the culture and dynamics of the Clemson football program shortly before his lone season at Oregon in 2017.
"The purpose of going there, and to kind of _ for me personally, just as a young coach and moving his way up, kind of clarify some things to me that we're already doing it the right way where we're at and [if we are] continuing to do things the way we're doing it, we'll get to where we all want to go," Taggart said.
While Swinney and the Tigers have their sights set on reaching the College Football Playoff for the fourth straight season, he did not downplay the competition in the ACC.
Swinney applauded the league for playing in 21 bowl games the last two seasons, complimenting fellow coaches like Dave Clawson at Wake Forest, Steve Addazio at Boston College and Dave Doeren at NC State.
He joked wishing Syracuse quarterback Eric Dungey would leave school after the Orange beat the Tigers last season. He also praised Louisville for its stiff competition, including several down-to-the-wire games in recent years.
Swinney also praised the new Seminoles coach he will begin a divisional rivalry with this season, when Clemson visits FSU on Oct. 27 in Doak Campbell Stadium.
"With Willie coming in there, I think he's a great fit for Florida State, and he's a winner," Swinney said. "He's won everywhere he's been. No real reason to think that he's not going to get them going. This is a job where he's got really all the resources to be successful, and I don't have any doubt he will. They've always got players, always got talent."
Florida State _ which received just one vote to win the Atlantic, and one to win the conference _ will begin its season against Virginia Tech at Doak Campbell Stadium on Sept. 3.
