Wyoming's Jay Sawvel took money out of his pocket to retain key staffers past two off seasons

Earning an FBS head coaching job is, and forever will be, among the most coveted roles a football coach can ever earn.

Still, one could argue being a head coach at the Group of Six level is as hard as it has ever been between budget cuts to make the way for NIL and revenue sharing, retaining coaches with a limited budget, and serving as essentially the minor leagues for the Power Four level with the transfer portal.

As Sawvel enters a critical third season, after going 3-9 in his debut 2024 campaign followed by a 4-8 season last fall, he decided to make a coordinator change. After parting ways with veteran play caller Jay Johnson, Bills defensive quality control coach and former William & Mary (FCS - VA) offensive coordinator Christian Taylor became Sawvel's choice to take over the offense. While with the Bills, Taylor had the opportunity to develop a relationship with franchise quarterback and former Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen.

While the offense needed a revamp after finishing 131st nationally in scoring (16 points per game) and 99th nationally in rushing, the defense performed admirably, finishing the season ranked 30th in points allowed per game and that led to some programs coming after Cowboys assistants.

Understanding the need for a solid season, Sawvel did what few other coaches would do to retain his assistants.

He dug into his own pockets.

In the third year of his five-year deal worth $5.8 million annually, earning a base salary of about $1.1 million, Sawvel not only donated $125k of his earnings back to the program in the form of revenue sharing, but he also handed over a good portion of his retention bonus totaling an additional $100,000 to ensure the retention of some key staff members.

If that's not impressive enough, Sawvel gave almost double that amount last season to keep staff members, according to 7220Sports.

With budget cuts going on across college athletics, Sawvel shared "There was one vehicle, and one means to do it, and that was to do it yourself."

The report adds that Wyoming had about $750k in NIL budgeted for 2025, and that has rised to nearly $2 million heading into this year.

Speaking to the media over the weekend, Sawvel compared budget cuts to cuts to the body.

"A budget is like the human body. You can cut certain things, and it can be like scrapes and scratches that heal and you don't really notice it. But there are other things that are like a knife wound. It's deep, it takes a long time to heal, and it is always going to leave a scar. I think when people look at it that way, you start looking at things to this university and what is being proposed and what is being talked about, and that can be a generational issue for people in this state, not just a two-year thing."

"Once you cross a certain line, you don't recover, and that's in everything."

Hear Sawvel's full comments on budget cuts in the clip.