Report: Willie Taggart Offered Oregon Contract Worth over $20M Amid FSU Rumors

The Oregon Ducks have reportedly offered head coach Willie Taggart a new contract that would pay him $20 million over five years, according to Andy Staples of SI.com.

Staples added that if "Jimbo Fisher leaves Florida State for Texas A&M, Taggart could be a candidate for the Seminoles' job."

Taggart's buyout at Oregon would be $4.5 million, per Andrew Greif of the Oregonian.

Chantel Jennings of The Athletic reported Oregon officials are not concerned about Taggart leaving because of the contract offer.

Taggart also retweeted a tweet from Joey Knight of the Tampa Bay Times stating that Taggart plans to stay at Oregon as people are "overplaying the importance of coming back to the home state."

It's also noted that Taggart is considered an excellent recruiter of players in Florida and "should Fisher leave, maintaining that advantage—especially with Miami's improvement under Mark Richt and with Dan Mullen poised to run a much better recruiting operation than predecessor Jim McElwain at Florida—will be a paramount concern" for the Seminoles.

Indeed, Dan Wolken of USA Today reported that the Seminoles have begun doing "background work" on Taggart should Fisher take the Texas A&M job, with Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times confirming that Taggart is being vetted.

As for the likelihood of Fisher bolting?

Baker reported: "Things aren't improving in Tallahassee. 'Disastrous,' is how the situation was described to me early Wednesday afternoon."

He added: "Fisher has been courted by other programs in the past—LSU (twice), Texas and West Virginia, to name a few. Fisher has leveraged that outside interest into increased commitments from FSU, including a new contract for himself and better facilities. But this time is different. Trying to squeeze more during a 5-6 season has upset some key powerbrokers at FSU."

With the Florida State situation in flux, Bryan Fischer of College Football Talk thinks Oregon is wisely trying to get out ahead of the situation: 

Taggart, 41, is 47-50 overall in his college coaching career, which included stops at Western Kentucky (2010-12), South Florida (2013-16) and Oregon this past season. At both Western Kentucky and South Florida, Taggart brought continued improvement, with South Florida going 2-10 in his first season with the program and flipping that to 10-2 by his fourth year on the job.

Losing Taggart would be a blow for the Ducks, especially with some of the top coaching candidates already off the board in a wild month for college football. And this particular coaching carousel involving Fisher and Taggart could have major ramifications for Texas A&M, Florida State and Oregon and their respective conferences.