Taggart feels good about his WKU team

Willie Taggart's Western Kentucky team lost to USF last week, but the head coach and Manatee High legend sounded like a winner after the game.

It was the fourth straight loss for WKU and extended the nation's longest losing streak to 24 games, but his young team played its best game and started to show signs that it could turn the corner when Sun Belt Conference play begins next week for the Hilltoppers at FIU.

In his first year as WKU's head coach, Taggart hopes to bring the Hilltoppers back to the glory days they had when he was their quarterback and it was a I-AA program.

"I am upbeat. We felt like we could’ve played better, but as a team we did what we said we would do at the beginning of the season, which was to get better every single game," Taggart said. "All of our goals are still there. Our next goal is to win the Sun Belt Conference and that is right there for us.

"Defensively we are coming. It's not showing up in the wins and losses yet, but we are getting better. I told our defense I had a dream last night that they were going to play their best ball game and they came out here and did that."