Not long after FSU fired Willie Taggart in November 2019, I wrote that the two sides never finalized a formal contract (beyond the initial letter of agreement). After reading 800+ pages of depositions in a tangentially related lawsuit, we have some insight into why.

The first hiccup was a new excise tax that was taking effect as part of the Trump's tax reform. He signed it into law 17 days after Taggart became coach, and it included a 21% excise tax RE: some highly paid employees at non-profits.

Another negotiating issue was the mitigation structure of the deal, according to FSU's general counsel. If Taggart was fired without cause, the initial letter of agreement said he was owed 85% of what was left, subject to a mitigation offset at his next job.

FSU's general counsel said in her deposition: “I don't remember beyond that other than feeling frustrated largely at whatever the holdup was."

Former #FSU AD Stan Wilcox was asked in his deposition what the holdup was:

Wilcox said he let FSU's office of legal affairs deal with Jimmy Sexton because at some point when Jimbo was still the coach, it got "a little too difficult."

Taggart ended up signing two proposed contracts to FSU, according to the depositions and exhibits. One was dated 9/6/19. The other, bigger one was dated 10/29/19. Why those dates? An FSU administrator, in a deposition, suggested looking at the games before those dates...

The first one was right after the Boise State loss to open his second year. The other was a week and a half after the Wake Forest loss, when the smoke began to rise in Tallahassee.
FSU officials, notably, did not sign either contract. Why not?

By late October, Taggart's future was clearly in jeopardy (he was fired a few days after signing the proposed deal). Here's what AD David Coburn said in his deposition:

I had been curious about what happened, and the depositions gave a lot of insight. So that's a more complete picture. /end

OK, two more random things from the depositions. Taggart was asked who he considered for his OC job after Year 1. He hired Kendal Briles, but the stenographer had problems understanding the other name he mentioned. Which led to this exchange:

Before FSU hired Kendal Briles as OC, Briles met with the school president, AD, Taggart and the chair of the board of trustees at the chair's real estate office in Jacksonville to talk through everything.