EUGENE, Ore. – New UO football coach Willie Taggart began his morning Thursday by touring the extravagant Oregon facilities.
The tour took him through the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex, with its mammoth weight room, opulent players' lounge and high-tech offices. It took him also to the new Marcus Mariota Sports Performance Center, with its cutting edge player development features and spacious new equipment room.
With each step of the tour, another man's pulse might have quickened, his blood pressure spiked. Every dazzling feature of the facilities might have added another pound of pressure to be borne across the shoulders of the new Oregon football head coach.