Western Kentucky hires Stanford’s Willie Taggart as football coach

WKU hires Stanford’s Taggart as coach

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Western Kentucky has hired Stanford assistant Willie Taggart as its football coach.

Taggart replaces David Elson, who was fired two weeks ago but agreed to finish the season. The Hilltoppers are 0-10 overall and 0-6 in the Sun Belt Conference. They have lost 18 straight games dating to last year, the nation’s longest active losing streak.

Taggart is in his third season as running backs coach at Stanford. He played and coached at Western Kentucky for more than a decade before joining the Cardinal.

Elson is 39-42 in seven seasons at Western Kentucky, which is in its first year as a full-fledged member of the Football Bowl Subdivision.