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Just eleven days after the departure of WR coach Ron Dugans to Miami, Willie Taggart has apparently found his replacement.
Fox Sports' Bruce Feldman reported earlier today that South Florida will bring in Michigan offensive assistant T.J. Weist as their new WR coach, seemingly continuing the Taggart-Harbaugh pipeline connection.
Weist Background
An Alabama alum and a Michigan native, the fifty year-old Weist has been a wide-receivers coach since 1990, coaching over 19 future NFL players according to his bio on Michigan's website. During his first stint in Ann Arbor, he most notably coached 1991 Heisman trophy winner and ESPN College Gameday analyst Desmond Howard.
In 2002, he joined Willie Taggart under Jack Harbaugh's offensive staff at Western Kentucky where the Hilltoppers won the Division I-AA (now FCS) National Championship.
More recent assistant coaching stops came at Cincinnati from 2010-12 and Uconn, where he briefly served as the interim head coach after the mid-season firing of Paul Pasqualoni. He joined Jim Harbaugh's staff as a senior offensive analyst for Michigan this past season.
What To Expect
This is yet another good assistant hire for Taggart and company considering that Weist has over twenty-five years of coaching experience and was a wide receiver himself under Bill Curry at Bama.
Weist joins a Bulls offensive unit that ranked 43rd overall in offensive S&P+, including 31st in Explosive Drive Rate.
He will have an opportunity to directly coach/mentor a plethora of returning talent at wideout, including breakout freshmen Chris Barr and Tyre McCants, sophomore Ryshene Bronson, junior NC State transfer Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and superstar Rodney Adams, who broke all of USF's single season receiving records in 2015.