Florida State Coach Willie Taggart Accuses Virginia Tech Players of Faking Injuries

Virginia Tech defeated Florida State 24-3 in the season opener for these ACC foes.

On the ACC coaches call on Wednesday, Florida State's Willie Taggart said he believes Virginia Tech players faked injuries to slow down the Seminoles' offense, according to Andrea Adelson of ESPN.com.

In Monday's game between the two conference rivals, the home fans booed the Hokies on multiple occasions when one of their players was slow to get back up on his feet after a Florida State play.

When Taggart was asked if he thought it was intentional that players stayed down, thus slowing down attempts by the Seminoles to use a faster tempo, he said, "It happened too often so it's hard not to."

"Well it is what it is, I guess it's part of football now," Taggart said. "That's all I can say."

Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente said on the call that his team was concerned with the humidity and weather in Tallahassee going into the game. He added that multiple players had to get IV's or other treatment during halftime to get through the contest.

Below are two instances of when the Hokies had a player stay down to allow for an injury substitution as Florida State attempted to go up-tempo with its offense.

For the record, the crowd booed the two players who stayed down after this play, I’d imagine because they thought VT was trying to slow down the pace. There’s a danger in making blanket statements about things like this. #Hokies pic.twitter.com/0x3Gl9fYCL

— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) September 5, 2018

Thoughts and prayers go out to this Virginia Tech player on this absolutely devastating injury #VTvsFSU https://t.co/SI4Z6sPaOg

— NOTSportsCenter (@NOTSportsCenter) September 4, 2018

OK, got a lot of comments about the timing of the Xavier Burke injury. This was him 2 plays before that. Obviously struggling to get out of stance. FSU went hurry up, he was slow to get back to the line, stayed in for next snap. FSU hit another big play & he went down. #Hokies pic.twitter.com/EG8FxNPLM4

— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) September 5, 2018

The Hokies went on to win the game 24-3. Monday's game was the first time since 2012 that these two squads faced each other.