WKU coach returns to alma mater to inspire hope

Every league has a laughingstock.

In the NFL, it's the Detroit Lions. In the NBA, it's the Los Angeles Clippers.

And in college football, it's the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

Since joining the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) in 2007, the Hilltoppers have been the worst of the bad. WKU went 0-12 last year and hasn't won a game since it knocked off Murray State early in the 2008 season. That was 713 days ago.

It's been even longer — 1,079 days — since the Toppers have beaten an FBS opponent.

But at least one man believes all that futility can be turned around. He's a young, excitable WKU alumnus who left a cushy job as a position coach at Stanford to lead a floundering program in the Sun Belt Conference.

Meet Willie Taggart.

To talk to Taggart is to talk to hope personified. At 34, he is the nation's youngest head coach and already a folk hero on WKU's campus in Bowling Green, Ky.

Taggart starred at Western Kentucky in the late '90s and served as an assistant coach on the Hilltopper team that won the 2002 Division I-AA national championship.

Eight years later and one level higher, it's odd to think that Western Kentucky has won a national title more recently than No. 8 Nebraska. But preparing for teams like Nebraska, Taggart said, helps get his players excited to rebuild the Hilltopper program.

"It's really a fun time for the coaches with game preparation," Taggart said during a coaches' teleconference this week. "And we haven't been in that mode yet, so we're really excited about that."

Perhaps part of Taggart's confidence comes from the renaissance he helped spark at Stanford. For many years a perennial loser in the Pac-10 Conference, Taggart mentored Heisman Trophy runner-up Toby Gerhart and watched the Cardinals turn into a national force during his tenure as running backs coach. He hopes to instill that same philosophy at WKU.

"Just developing the mentality that you never give up, no matter what the situation is," Taggart said. "As long as you stick together, believe in one another, anything is possible."

Taggart won't be totally unfamiliar with Nebraska. He was a high school teammate of former Huskers Tommie Frazier and Shevin Wiggins. He said Wiggins sent him a text message this week telling him to "prepare for the Sea of Red."

Taggart also has first-hand knowledge of Nebraska running back Rex Burkhead, whom he recruited while at Stanford. Burkhead said he knows Taggart will have his squad ready to compete.

"He's a great guy and I definitely expect him to turn that program around," Burkhead said. "We expect them to come out and really be playing."

Taggart said his team will be ready to play Saturday, with the message that anything is possible if they just play football.

"We've got to make that environment where people start to believe again," he said.

mitchsmith@

dailynebraskan.com