From the wife's perspective.

I like sports. My Dad played college basketball at the University of Illinois (when they were good) and my Mom has always loved the Atlanta Braves. Both of my parents like football and my Dad is really pretty surprisingly knowledgeable about any sport ever played. So I've grown up watching sports. I played some softball and a tiny bit of basketball when I was a kid and as you all know I've married a high school football coach. So for the rest of my life I will know about, talk about, read about and hear about sports, all sports but probably most specifically, football.

Before you read any further, I'll warn you that this post is pretty regionally specific. I'll be discussing WKU football (Bowling Green, Kentucky) and USF football (Tampa, Florida) and by "football" I mean, "the things happening with the head coach change." So don't worry, there will be almost nothing about stats and recruiting and so on.

Western Kentucky University is where the Coach and I went to College. During our years there WKU made the difficult move from being a 1AA school to a Division 1 program. It practically killed them. At some point while we were in college, the WKU football program began what became something like a 31 game LOSING streak. The longest in D1 and certainly in WKU football history. It was pretty painful to watch so most people stopped watching...I'm talking practically empty stadium kind of stuff. It was brutal. Then 3 years ago WKU made a great catch. They hired an Alum who had previously been an assistant coach named Willie Taggart. It was his first head coaching job but the university believed he was just the medicine that they needed to cure their pigskin ailment. Turns out, he was. The team had a major turn around, in fact at the Homecoming 2011 game, the Coach and I got to witness the first at home win in....Lord only knows how long....and it was awesome. We loved this guy. He was humble, he was honest, he was working the team in the right direction and his kids went to the school where Ben was a teacher so we got to see first hand that he was a family man.

Coach and Wife *almost* at the 2011 WKU football game! 5 minutes to kick off and CLEARLY it was packed...not.

Soooo here we are 3 years later and the University of South Florida (in Tampa) has hired him to come in as their new head coach. Reviews are mixed. His over-all record is limited because of the mess he inherited at WKU, and he'll only be in his 4th year as a head coach. But from where I stand this could be just what USF needs to get their potentially good program back on track...however, not the point of my post.

The real point of my post is this. Early this morning on Facebook I read a status from a WKU alum chastising Coach Taggart from leaving the Hilltoppers high and dry. His claim was that the Coach wasn't a true Hilltopper, that he was only in it for the money, that he was somehow no longer a Hilltopper by leaving WKU to work at USF. And I chose the word, "work" in the previous sentence very carefully. This is a job. His job. His family's livelihood. He has aspirations of becoming a big time college football coach, as most men in his position do. He is a former Florida resident, he grew up 30 minutes from Tampa, where his extended family still remains. USF is a Big East team, in a sunny climate, where  he's been recruiting for years. Why wouldn't he take this job???

A true Hilltopper believes that "the SPIRIT makes the master" his goal is to become the most successful football coach he can be, to become a master. And at the heart of that mastery will always be his WKU spirit where he was a coach, a player and a student. As a WKU graduate I can tell you that simply because you've moved away doesn't mean that who you became when WKU was your home wont effect you any longer. It's really quite the contrary. The university prides itself on the loyalty and integrity you breathe in as you walk the campus hills. Who is to say that this way of living isn't deeply rooted in Coach Taggart and that the knowledge, experience and opportunities he aquired at WKU won't be the single greatest impact on the way that he coaches at other schools in the future? WKU believes in being a first rate university with INTERNATIONAL reach. That means we have to let our finest go out into the rest of the world and make something of themselves. We are not truly Hilltoppers if we don't see the benefit in sending "one of our own" into the world to make waves. Think of the pride WKU graduates will feel if he someday he coaches an SEC team to the National Championship or perhaps in a few years his hands are the ones to mold a Heisman trophy winner.

What good does the WKU experience do for the rest of the world if we bottle it up and only allow it to live in Bowling Green, Kentucky??

Now my Coach is a HIGH SCHOOL football coach. And it's not the same BUT if my Coach stood in Mr. Taggarts shoes, I would be proudly patting him on the back. An opportunity like this may have never come along for him again. As Coach's families we have to make the choices that are best for us. We have to move when we need to move and coach where we need to Coach in order to fulfill dreams and support families. This is simply a job, and it is time for him to go. But just like other WKU alumni have gone on to vet school and law school in other places or WKU alumni have gone to teach in China or join the Peace Corp or work on political campaigns, Once a Hilltopper, Always a Hilltopper.

So, from one football family to another I say, Taggarts, Good Luck football family, God be with you and Welcome to TAMPA :-)

Love & Peace.