Taggart deserves a pass: What would Joe have said??

Our beloved Willie Taggart has found himself in a little hot water, but does he really deserve it?
His Western Kentucky football team is playing Kentucky Saturday and Taggart got upset because he saw so many students on his campus wearing Kentucky apparel.

Taggart tweeted, “They probably couldn’t get into UK.”

The former Manatee High great later apologized and said he was just miffed because WKU students who wear UK apparel are not showing allegiance to his school.

Feeling here is Taggart deserves a pass. He runs a clean program and has given a lot of kids who were headed for trouble a chance.

But here is a better question:

What would Joe Kinnan say if he saw a bunch of students wearing Southeast apparel during game week against the Seminoles?

Could we safely assume whatever he said would make Taggart’s comments seem rather mundane?

 

USF offers three Manatee defensive linemen

The University of South Florida offered scholarships to three Manatee High defensive linemen soon after the Hurricanes Class 7A state semifinal victory over Palm Beach Dwyer Gardens last weekend.

Manatee assistant coaches said the offers went to juniors Blake Keller (6-2, 211) and Derrick Calloway (6-1, 302) and sophomore DeMarcas Christmas (6-3. 285). They said there is a chance the fourth member of the 'Canes front four, junior Marquis Dawsey (5-11, 219), could eventually secure an offer.

The players obviously have time to wait, which is good. USF head coach Skip Holtz is on the hot seat after a 5-7 season which saw him win only one Big East Conference game. Quite a few fans are upset that he is third highest paid football coach in the Big East Conference earning $1.7 million with little to show for it.

Ironically, if Holtz does get fired next season there are those at Manatee High who are hoping Willie Taggart might get the job. The former Manatee star quarterback did one of the best turn-around jobs in the country this year at Western Kentucky and is considered a fierce recruiter who gets excellent results.

Poole, Sandberg lauded along with other top county players

Six players from Manatee County were cited for their extraordinary talent in Friday Night Football Florida magazine due to hit the stands soon.

The top honor went to Brian Poole, Southeast High’s highly touted defensive back, who was selected to the Reebok Team Florida first team defense. Manatee High junior quarterback Cord Sandberg was selected to the Team Florida second team offense, which makes him the second best quarterback in the state heading into the season.

The All-West Coast team, which includes schools from Manatee County south through Naples (including Polk County), has three Southeast players in Poole, defensive lineman DeAngelo Dawes and offensive lineman Kevin Williams.

Manatee High’s two representatives are defensive back Clinton Heaven and Sandberg. Palmetto High linebacker DaQual Randall was also named. Manatee is rated the top team.

Kinnan visits Taggart and Woodie at Western Kentucky

Talk about surprise visits!

Western Kentucky head football coach Willie Taggart and assistant Raymond Woodie were going about their business today on campus when the two Manatee County products received a pleasant surprise.

Joe Kinnan, Manatee High's legendary football coach, unexpectedly showed up on campus unbeknown to Taggart and Woodie.

Kinnan, who once coached at Eastern Kentucky, is currently vacationing in the Bluegrass state. It was a nice reunion for him and Taggart, who played quarterback for Manatee High under him before going on to earn All-American honors at WKU.

"We had no idea he was coming. It was a complete surprise," said Woodie, who played his football at Palmetto High and was an All-American at Bethune-Cookman.

Taggart and Kinnan have stayed in touch since their days together with the Manatee High football team when Taggart led the 'Canes to a state title in 1992 as a junior and to the state championship game his senior year.

Things get tougher for Manatee as Aquinas re-loads again

Life just got a little tougher for the Manatee High football program this spring, though we should not be surprised.

St. Thomas Aquinas, which reloads its football roster better than most college programs, just keeps getting richer and richer.

The school, which is known for bringing in highly touted seniors in its own version of one and done and fielding what is basically an all- star squad, apparently isn’t going to miss a beat even with a new coach.

Bryan Cox Jr., one of the most highly touted high school players in the Class of 2012, is transferring from Avon High in Ohio to St. Thomas, it has been reported in numerous publications.

Rivals.Com and ESPN.Com have already listed St. Thomas Aquinas as Cox’s new high school.

The 6-3, 230-pound defensive end has received 16 offers from major college football programs according to Rivals.Com and many more are expected. Among the official suitors are those from Miami, Michigan State, Iowa, Pittsburgh and West Virginia.

Avon finished 10-1 last year winning all of its regular season games. Cox was credited with 38 solo tackles, which he feels is misleading because teams ran away from his side.

Bryan is the son of former Miami Dolphins All-Pro linebacker Bryan Cox, who played 12 seasons in the NFL.

The Miami Dolphins hired Cox as its pass rush coach last February. He spent the previous two seasons as the defensive line coach for the Cleveland Browns.

Manatee and St. Thomas Aquinas will be in the new Class 7A division after competing in 5A. The Raiders have won three of the last four 5A state titles and been to the championship game in six of the last seven years.

The only time St. Thomas Aquinas failed to make the title game was in 2009 when Manatee defeated the Raiders in the semifinal in what was one of the program’s greatest victories considering the reality of what is going on at the Fort Lauderdale school.

Hall of Fame exec says Tommie Frazier should be in

Steve Hatchell, the president and CEO of the National Football Foundation, which operates the College Football Hall of Fame, said Tommie Frazier deserves to be inducted.

Hatchell made his comment to ESPN this week after controversy erupted all over the country over the exclusion of Frazier and other former college football greats.

It seems there are a bunch of unwritten rules about how people get in. Hatchell said one thing that hurt Frazier was that former Nebraska offensive lineman Will Shields was voted in this year.

"There's a lot of things to balance: What do we have for positions, for race, for geographic considerations," Hatchell told ESPN.com. "What people don't understand is that we're not dealing with 32 teams. We're dealing with 119 and we're dealing with 22 positions and special teams while going border to border and coast to coast. And we've worked very hard in the last seven years to show a lot of balance.”

Frazier finished his career at Nebraska in 1995 and wasn’t on the ballot until this year. The Manatee High product was voted the 33d best player of All Time in 2004 by Collegefootballnews.com