Ravens expected to hire longtime NCAA head coach to staff

The Baltimore Ravens are expected to hire decades-long NCAA coach Willie Taggart as the team's running backs coach, wrote ESPN senior writer Adam Rittenberg.

"We are excited to welcome Willie to the Ravens as our running backs coach," Harbaugh said in a statement. "Willie has been a highly successful and respected college assistant and head coach. He has a proven track record for developing players as a position coach, as an offensive coordinator and as a head coach. 

"A leader and a highly effective motivator, Willie's reputation for building strong relationships with his players and fellow coaches will serve our offense well moving forward."

Taggart was the head coach for five different NCAA football programs in the past, including Oregon and Florida State. He first became a head coach at Western Kentucky in 2010 after he switched through several spots on the team's offensive coaching staff between 2001-06. 

Taggart was originally hired onto the Colorado staff under head coach Deion Sanders. Sanders said both he and former Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer were heading to the Buffaloes on a late-January edition of the Folsom Frenzy Podcast, according to Tampa Bay Times Bucs Reporter Joey Knight.

“Taggart’s coming, too, by the way,” Sanders said. “Coach Zim is coming too, by the way. So another two head coaches, one in the NFL as well as the collegiate field."

From just a quick glance, it seems like Baltimore has done well in scouring the collegiate ranks for potential coaches. The Ravens just hired Todd Monken, the offensive coordinator for the University of Georgia and a finalist for the Broyles award, for the same position in Baltimore. They conducted 21 interviews with 14 candidates before they made the OC decision.

The question will be if they are ready to make the jump to the pros despite being career college coaches. Though Monken has had stints with NFL teams in the past, going as high as OC for both Tampa Bay and Cleveland, Taggart has never been a coach in the league since he started his career in 1999.