With Helfrich out, the University of Oregon tapped Willie Taggart, head football coach at the University of Southern Florida, to helm the squad. While Taggart’s record was only 40-45 in his six seasons as a head coach, he was able to turn a 2-10 Bulls team into a 10-2 program this year.
It didn’t take long for one of the biggest stories of the year to start unfolding. On Jan. 2 after an estimated 300 marchers paraded through Burns in support of a group of ranchers who had run afoul of the law, a splinter group of armed protesters took over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, about 30 miles south of Burns, to protest federal land management policies.