The next day, Florida State fired coach Willie Taggart. He finished 9-12 there, with two losses to Miami. He was very bad at the whole coaching-football thing, and Miami fans were vocal in hoping he would stick around just a tad longer.
In related news, Sunday afternoon, the Miami Dolphins — priorly winless and totally inept — played their best game of the season against the New York Jets. Two touchdown passes from Ryan Fitzpatrick to Preston Williams and a strong game from a defense full of Dolphins players you've never heard of were enough to embarrass the Jets with a 26-18 Miami win.Breaking: Florida State has fired head coach Willie Taggart pic.twitter.com/yXe7vB9KdE
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) November 3, 2019
Former Dolphins coach and current Jets coach Adam Gase could soon be out of a job after eight games with New York, all but one of them losses. If Gase doesn't lose his job this week, he'll like be replaced after the season. His tenure with the Jets has been an unmitigated disaster. It's hilarious.
In any other season, watching the Hurricanes and Dolphins destroy the Seminoles and Jets on consecutive days wouldn't be all that weird. This season, though, the back-to-back wins felt like a miracle.Jets acting owner Christopher Johnson greeting players as they walk into locker room.
— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) November 3, 2019
Will Johnson finally show any accountability and address this mess and this head coach that he hired?
Fans thought there had to be a catch. The odd feeling might've stemmed from the fact that it's hard to celebrate the firing of their rivals' coaches when it's clearly better for the Dolphins and the Canes if Gase and Taggart continued coaching against Miami teams.
The Canes entered the game against the Seminoles as a fragile 4-4 team with little reason to feel good about themselves. On the bus out of Tallahassee, it felt like Manny Diaz and his team had finally found a catalyst to move forward.That three in a row feeling pic.twitter.com/5G3fVzaCeg
— Canes Football (@CanesFootball) November 3, 2019
If UM can finish the season strong, win a bowl game, and pick up some recruits, the team can look back at the FSU game as the point where the momentum began. Now that Taggart is gone, FSU might be able to say the same thing in a few seasons.
As for the Dolphins, they'd seemingly been on a mission to lose every football game the NFL put in front of them this season. After seven straight losses, head coach Brian Flores got his first win in Miami, and the #TankForTua parade seems in danger of cancellation.Stephen Ross presents Coach Flores with the game ball following our win!#FinsUp pic.twitter.com/rIdxFQWAPQ
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) November 3, 2019
It felt good to hand losses to Gase and the Jets, but in the long run, Miami's win might help the Jets pull the Band-Aid off their own Adam Gase era and hurt the Dolphins' chances of landing the franchise quarterback of their dreams.
For a weekend, though, beating the Seminoles and the Jets was just what the doctor ordered.