Taggart taps West Coast experience with Keith Heyward
If Willie Taggart's first month as Oregon coach had a theme or a tagline, it could very well be "building momentum by doing things the right way."
He's landed three surprise recruits, two from Florida and one from California, a group that includes a big defensive tackle to play the nose, a four-star cornerback and a dynamic athlete he stole from Arizona.
Three and four offers are going out every day.
He brought in a top defensive coordinator.
And this week he's added not one but two secondary coaches who are both high energy recruiters and meticulous teachers with a knack for teaching press coverage, Colorado's Charles Clark and Keith Heyward from Louisville.
The 36-year-old Heyward has accumulated 8 seasons coaching in the PAC-12 at three different stops. He has deep roots in the fertile Southern California recruiting ground, having played at Montclair Prep and Taft High School in the 1990s.
Like Rich Brooks a generation ago, the Ducks grabbed him from the other side of Highway 99, the opposite border in the state's Civil War. Heyward played and coached for Mike Riley at Oregon State.
His wife Cameo, however, grew up in Hood River and was a track athlete at Oregon, a hurdler who went on to coach at Lane Community College and the Emerald Valley Track Club.
As a defensive back for the Beavers the Southern California product started 35 straight games in the secondary from 1997-2000, honorable mention all-league as a senior. He played on the 2001 Fiesta Bowl team that crushed Notre Dame and earned an invite to the Hula Bowl All Star game, winding up his career with three cracks at pro football, a season each with British Columbia of the CFL (2001), the Scottish Claymores in NFL Europe (2002) and the Los Angeles Avengers in the Arena League (2004).
He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant for Riley and Mark Banker in Corvallis, spending one season coaching linebackers at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo before returning for four seasons coaching the secondary at OSU from 2008-2011.
Seven of his players played in the NFL, including Brandon Hughes, Keenan Lewis, Brandon Hardin, Al Afalava, James Dockery and Suaesi Tuimaunei. Jordan Poyer and Lance Mitchell made the all-conference team in 2011.
His top salary in Corvallis was $105,000.
Then Washington's Steve Sarkisian beckoned with a better offer.
At the time, he told Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune, "Coach Riley is the best guy I've ever worked with. He has taught me everything I know. He's a very smart coach and a great person, and I love him.
"I'm a Beaver through and through. It was a very tough decision. The toughest thing was having to talk to Coach Riley and Coach Banker. Those guys taught me so much. But sometimes you have to look at the whole situation."
It wasn't the money, Heyward insisted, but the opportunity to grow as a coach and enjoy better resources.
His first secondary at UW ranked 23rd in the country in pass defense. Safety Sean Parker racked up 11 career interceptions. Desmond Trufant blossomed into a first round draft pick.
For his next coaching stop, Heyward followed Sark to USC. It was a trip home for the Southern California product, who was born in Washington D.C. and grew up in Queens, New York, but moved West with his family as a teenager, playing high school football for three seasons at Montclair Prep before transferring to Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California as a senior, where he played for Troy Starr.
Heyward knows SoCal. That first season he sat down with Greg Katz of ESPN and said, “I know most of all the guys. Josh [Shaw] is a kid I tried to recruit out of Palmdale. I tried to recruit Chris Hawkins, Anthony Brown from the Inland Empire, Devian Shelton from Inglewood. I recruited Su’a Cravens down in Vista Murrieta."
Cravens and Adoree Jackson became All-Americans. Shaw made the NFL as a first rounder. Working with the legendary Clancy Pendergast, Heyward molded them into a secondary that finished a surprising second in the conference in pass defense in his first year working with them.
He was also the principal recruiter of eight four-star players, a group that included Juju Smith-Schuster, Marvell Tell, Ykili Ross and Bryce Dixon.
But just 13 months ago, in December 2015 Heyward learned what it was like to be part of a coaching purge. New head coach Clay Helton fired four assistants when he took over after his second stint as interim coach.
Heyward landed at Louisville under Bobby Petrino, signed last January to a three-year contract that paid him $300,000 in his first year. "He's an excellent teacher and technician," his new boss told the press.
His first Cardinal secondary ranked 38th in the nation in pass defense, 21st in interceptions with 15.
Taggart needed another guy with West Coast connections to balance out his staff, and he's picked a good one in Heyward, a coach who'll match his enthusiasm and hands-on style.
At USC Heyward told ESPN's Katz, “Basically, you open up to the kids and let them know who you are. It’s a two-way street. They have to earn my trust and I have to earn their trust. From there, it’s about what you do.
“They have to know I am putting them in the right situations, and they have to know I care about them and not just wins. I want them to understand I do care about what they’re doing off the field and staying out of trouble socially and in the classroom. When it’s time to talk about football, we’ll talk about football. It’s a trust thing. You can’t just come in here and give a speech. They’ll read right through you.”
To succeed in the offensive-minded PAC-12 in this era of multiple, fast-paced offenses, a defense has to be multiple also, he went on. Press. Play some man and play some zone.
His goal as a coach is to give his players a defensive back tool and what he calls FBI: football intelligence.
Asked what he looks for in players, Heyward said to Katz, “First, I would say guys that can cover and have ball skills. He has to be able to disrupt receivers and tackle well. I have to have smart guys.
“Even though you’re a great athlete, you have to know how to play smart and know what’s going on with other offenses and what they’re trying to do to you. You have to know their formations and certain plays."