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Florida State coach Willie Taggart cites dehydration as factor in Week 1 loss to Boise State
By Dave Holcomb
Published:
Big Ten fans who love laughing at the “superior” southern football schools had two different programs to poke fun at after opening weekend. Most fans gravitated towards trolling Tennessee, but Florida State had a very embarrassing defeat Saturday as well.
In a game at home against Boise State, the Seminoles blew an 18-point lead. Florida State didn’t score in the final 34 minutes of the, 36-31, loss.
Florida State is now 11-12 in its last 23 games, and under coach Willie Taggart, the Seminoles own an astonishing 5-8 mark. Searching for answers, Taggart cited hydration as a possible issue during the loss, saying the team was planning to play a night game in Jacksonville — not an early afternoon tilt in Tallahassee.
“They need to start hydrating early in the week and take care of their bodies,” Taggart said in his call-in show according to ESPN.com. “We can’t leave it up to our players just to do it. We’ve got to force them to hydrate and take care of themselves. I don’t know if we did a good job of that last weekend. One of those situations where you live and learn, and we’ll make sure that we help our guys when it comes to that.”
When losses happen, especially in games that should have been wins, it’s natural to assess everything. Maybe Florida State really needs to work on its conditioning.
However, there’s not many defenses conditioned to play more than 40 minutes. That was Boise State’s time of possession, and because of that, the Broncos ran 46 more plays than the Seminoles did.
Florida State’s offense couldn’t stay on the field to give the defense a rest, going 1-for-12 on third down.
But the lamest part of Taggart’s excuse is the fact they were playing at home against a team from Idaho, who isn’t used to the heat. Hydration really shouldn’t be a factor for a Florida team in its own stadium.
Things may only get more interesting in Tallahassee from here if Taggart and the Seminoles continue to struggle.