The college football regular season is over, which means prime time for rumors season to begin. The last few weeks have been buzzing with coaching changes, college football playoff drama, Heisman hopefuls, and much more. As such, today's rumor mill is filled with more Oregon drama regarding former head coach of the Ducks, Willie Taggart, and Arkansas setting its sights on a new head coach. Here are all the latest college football news & rumors you need to know:
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Oregon AD Suggests Taggart Lied About Contact FSU
On Tuesday, Taggart announced he is leaving Oregon to take over as head coach at Florida State. John Canzano from The Oregonian tweeted out that Oregon AD Rob Mullens' timeline of events suggested that Taggart lied about having contact with Florida State.
Rob Mullens, Oregon AD, says Florida State contacted Willie Taggart on Thursday. On Friday, Taggart said he hadn’t yet been contacted.
— John Canzano (@johncanzanobft) December 6, 2017
Last week, Taggart addressed the rumors of his interest in the FSU job:
“Why wouldn’t I be? I’m the football coach,” Taggart said Friday when asked if he’d be back at Oregon next season, via Safid Deen of the Orlando Sentinel. “You guys are asking me like you’re trying to get me out of here or something.”
Mullens suggesting Taggart lied is believable considering Taggart on Sunday tweeted this out.
Looking forward to a great day tomorrow with our team. Practice, find out where & who we play in the bowl game, 2017 Team banquet and then back on the road recruiting. Go Ducks! #TheMovement18
— Willie Taggart (@CoachTaggart) December 3, 2017
This tweet suggests he is looking ahead to the 2018 season for Oregon, which is certainly misleading now considering he accepted the head coaching job at Florida State.
Jim Leavitt May Remain At Oregon
When Taggart received the job to be the next head coach at Florida State, it was believed that defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt would join him.
Source tells me Jim Leavitt is expected to head to FSU with Taggart.
— Steve Mims (@SteveMims_RG) December 5, 2017
However, Justin Hopkins of Scoop Duck says Leavitt wants to remain at Oregon.
The latest on this is right here: (Jim wants to be at Oregon) https://t.co/eMCkDrdnG2 https://t.co/lws5yNILp8
— Justin Hopkins (@JHopkinsSD) December 5, 2017
Leavitt was formerly the head coach at South Florida and has expressed his desire to be a head coach again. For the meantime, Oregon offensive coordinator Mario Cristobal will serve as the interim head coach for the Ducks bowl game against Boise State.
Arkansas's New Head Coach?
The Razorbacks have a new top target as head coach for their football team, his name is Chad Morris. Currently, Morris is the head coach of SMU and the 49-year-old was an extremely successful high school coach in Texas, then led Clemson to tremendous success as their offensive coordinator under Dabo Swinney.
Yahoo’s Pete Thamel reported on Tuesday that a deal between Arkansas and Morris is expected in the next 24 hours.
Source: Chad Morris has emerged as Arkansas top target. Expect a deal in 24 hours.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 5, 2017
SMU the past three seasons under Morris have a 14-22 record, but have improved each season. Also, interesting to mention that certain websites like Wikipedia already have Morris as the head football coach at Arkansas.
UPDATE: Arkansas hires Chad Morris as head football coach
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