A New Offensive Era Begins: Christian Taylor Takes Over Wyoming Playbook
- Jeff Bugher
- Dec 28, 2025
- 5 min read
LARAMIE, Wyo. - On Friday, December 19, the University of Wyoming officially announced that head coach Jay Sawvel hired Christian Taylor as the program’s new offensive coordinator. Taylor arrives in Laramie after spending the past two seasons as a defensive analyst, defensive assistant, and offensive advisor with the Buffalo Bills. Christian will be adding a college and NFL perspective to a Wyoming offense that is searching for an identity and innovation heading into the 2026 campaign.
Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman and Sawvel have both emphasized how important the offensive coordinator hire would be to the future success of the offense.
Unfortunately, offensive coordinator Jay Johnson, who was hired in 2024, was relieved of his duties following a rough loss at Air Force in October. Something Jeff Bugher from Pokes News wrote about after hearing from multiple sources on the Sunday following the loss. Johnson worked with two highly touted quarterbacks during his time in Laramie, yet the offense struggled to find rhythm and never found any sustainable success during in nearly two years. The offense was bland, lacked creativity and adaptability.
Following the Air Force loss, Wyoming legend and wide receivers coach Jovon Bouknight stepped in to handle play-calling duties for the remainder of the year. While the Cowboys showed flashes, including a strong performance against Colorado State, their offensive struggles persisted.
The hiring of Christian Taylor is intriguing.
For Cowboy fans, national college football reporter Bruce Feldman is best known for his annual “College Football Freaks List,” which drops every August and highlights elite athletic talent across the sport. But Feldman also authored a 2023 feature that caught out attention when we went digging into Taylor’s background. The article, titled “William & Mary has the most creative offense in CFB. Here’s what you might be missing,” focused heavily on the impact Taylor had while serving as offensive coordinator for the Tribe.
In that piece, Feldman wrote that “what Taylor and the Tribe are doing is running one of the most successful and innovative systems in the sport.”
Feldman detailed an offense built on creativity and adaptability. One that utilized trick plays, dual-quarterback looks, and constant “outside the box” thinking. Taylor’s system at William & Mary featured a triple-option threat, but one “dressed up out of pro-style sets from many different formations,” making it difficult for defenses to diagnose and prepare for. The creativity extended to personnel groupings and packages designed specifically to get playmakers into advantageous situations.
As Feldman put it in the article, “Taylor’s offensive philosophy is, ‘You gotta do something most teams aren’t doing.’”
The results back it up. In 2022, William & Mary finished 11-2, went 6-0 on the road for the first time in program history, won the CAA conference championship, and earned an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.
We took it further, we got the perspective from the head coach who hired Taylor at his last college coaching job, Mike London.
Former William & Mary head coach Mike London, who hired Taylor, spoke at length when we interviewed him by phone from his home in Virginia about what made Taylor stand out to him both as a coach and as a person. Mike London has a very long resume, including a stop in the NFL as an assistant coach for the Texans and as the head coach at Virginia.
“Well, obviously the fit, knowing that William & Mary’s an academic school that wants to and competes for championships,” London said. “And Christian had gone to school here. He’d played, he’d coached here. It made it easier when you have guys that are like-minded in terms of student athletes pursuing their degree, but competing at the highest level, in the classroom, on the field, and in the community.”
London emphasized that Taylor’s character and shared philosophy were just as important as his football acumen.
“You build in hiring staffs and surrounding yourself with like-minded people,” London said.
Once Taylor arrived, London said his impact was immediate because he adapted his ideas to the personnel already in place.
“Very seldom do you have a coordinator say, ‘This is my scheme, this is what we’re doing, this is what we’re calling,’” London said. "He took the schemes and the systems and he put it in a way that the guys understood it. So the learning curve wasn’t so steep in terms of everything being new.”
London pointed to Taylor’s emphasis on tailoring the offense around the players, not the other way around.
“He has a pretty unique way of finding the who and the what,” London said. “Coach used to always talk about think players, not plays. I think what Christian was able to do… is find out what they’re good at doing. And then taking that and then putting together schemes and plays or things that are directed towards their skill strength and letting them operate.”
That approach led to one of the most unique offensive weapons in college football, as William & Mary employed a dual-quarterback system roughly a third of the time.
“We did have a two-quarterback system where a guy who was a quarterback, but he also played wide receiver,” London said. “He was a running back at times… and he became one of two players in college football history that threw 4,000, had 1,000 yards receptions, and ran 4,000. So Christian was a big part of that, scheming that up and finding a way to get the ball into a playmaker’s hands.”
London believes Taylor’s creativity will translate regardless of personnel, including at quarterback.
“He’ll delve into the strengths of each particular unit, offensive line, receivers, running backs, and even the quarterback,” London said. “If you’re surrounded by guys that are ball in the hand guys, you’ll find ways to make it happen.”
Beyond X’s and O’s, London repeatedly returned to Taylor’s work ethic and care for players.
“He loves what he does. He loves to teach and coach,” London said. “Christian is a guy that will come early, stay late, but he’ll always find a way to make it easier for the player.”
London also noted how Taylor’s recent time with the Buffalo Bills, working alongside Sean McDermott (a William & Mary Alumni) and gaining exposure to NFL-level preparation, only adds to his readiness.
“Now you have a guy that spent time on the defensive side of the ball with the Buffalo Bills trying to guard that quarterback that they have,” London said. “Now you have ways that he can discern how to get players, how to get the ball in particular players’ hands and make it happen.”
The hope is that Taylor’s creativity, adaptability, and player-first mindset can spark an offense that has searched for answers.
For London, there is little doubt.
“Chris has been ready-made for this for a long time,” he said.
About the Author:
Jeff Bugher is a third-generation Wyomingite living in Casper. He is a sportswriter and Wyoming Cowboys/Cowgirls enthusiast who is a member of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA ) and the National Sports Media Association (NSMA). Jeff's work has been cited by Sports Illustrated, one of the world's leading sports publications.
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