It officially took 34 days for new Oregon coach Willie Taggart to hire his nine-member staff.

GoUSFBulls.com

Taggart began with defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt and rounded out his staff with former USF assistant Raymond Woodie on Thursday.

Woodie will serve as special teams coordinator at Oregon. He was the defensive coordinator last season for Taggart in Tampa. In all, he’s worked with Taggart for the last four seasons.

On Jan. 10, USF announced Woodie would not return as an assistant coach.

Woodie has been known as a coveted recruiter; he was named the American Athletic Conference‘s top recruiter by Rivals in 2014.

Woodie, 42, coached the special teams at USF beginning with the 2015 season. His group had success, finishing the season sixth nationally in kickoff returns.

He coached at Western Kentucky under Taggart for three seasons before moving to USF. At Western Kentucky, he was defensive ends coach for two seasons and linebackers coach for one season. Before Western Kentucky, he coached at Palmetto High School and Bayshore High School.

“He didn’t have much (at Bayshore), but he did a great job of changing those kids into winners and getting them to believe,” Taggart said in a Tampa Bay Times feature story last year. “I always told him, ‘Hey, Woodie, if I ever become a head coach I’m gonna come get you.’ “

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