A poll conducted by CBS Sports was not kind to Willie Taggart and James Franklin.
CBS Sports polled 20 percent of the current 129 active coaches in FBS. They asked for the coaches to name the most overrated and underrated coaches in the game.
Taggart and Franklin tied with the most votes for most overrated coach. They each received 20 percent. Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and FAU’s Lane Kiffin were next on the list. Stanford’s David Shaw and Washington’s Chris Petersen tied for the most votes as underrated coaches. Interestingly, Shaw appeared on both lists.
CBS included quotes from many of the coaches that explained their votes.
Most of the comments about Taggart centered around him seemingly being undeserving of the Florida State job. One coach said that Franklin was “full of it.”
Labeling Taggart overrated has some legitimacy to it considering he only has coached one season at a major football school. He went 7-5 at Oregon last year and now has been handed the keys to a football powerhouse in Florida State. The criticism of Franklin makes very little sense. The guy went 9-4 at Vanderbilt two years in a row, had them ranked, and won two bowl games there. Then he went to Penn State and returned them to prominence with consecutive 11-win seasons. He’s proven he’s among the top coaches in the profession. If anything, he’s underrated.
