Are the Cowboys Really Flirting With Adding an Option Attack?

LARAMIE -- During Craig Bohl's decade-long tenure at Wyoming, his defenses always spent time in the spring breaking down Air Force's patented option attack. That hasn't changed under the leadership of Jay Sawvel, who served as the defensive coordinator here from 2020-23.

It appeared that was again the case Thursday inside a cloud-covered War Memorial Stadium.

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Turns out, it was multi-purpose.

"We might look like Air Force at some point," Wyoming's third-year head coach said with a grin. "I mean, don't put that past us."

While the delivery was playful, the message is anything but. He's serious. When you land an experienced quarterback with a tick under 900 career rushing yards under his belt -- 670 of which came last fall during his final season at William and Mary -- you improvise.

Christian Taylor, Wyoming's new offensive coordinator, who back in 2022 recruited Hughes out of Marietta High School, always envisioned a dual-threat signal caller running the show. He had just that with Darius Wilson, who not only threw for nearly 7,000 yards in his career in Williamsburg but also ran for another 1,910 and 19 scores.

Taylor said one goal in his name-less scheme is to get the ball into the hands of his playmakers.

Yes, that includes running a form of the option.

"It's a part of our offense," he said. "Whatever you do, you always want to make the defense defend the whole field. The whole width of the field. You always want to do it in a variety of ways to get your athletes in space.

"That's one of the many ways that we'll be able to do that."

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Hughes last season became the first Braves' QB in team history to throw for more than 2,300 yards and eclipse the 600-yard mark on the ground. He was responsible for 31 touchdowns, 20 coming through the air.

More importantly, he turned the ball only three times.

Hughes, along with roughly a dozen of his teammates, left practice Tuesday and immediately headed to the film room. Sawvel said that was likely going to be the case. Taylor isn't surprised, either.

The 6-foot, 200-pound graduate transfer has been leading voluntary workouts since he arrived on campus back in January.

"He's always been an awesome person, he's always loved football and he's always worked his tail off," said Taylor, who accepted an analyst role with the Buffalo Bills after Hughes' second season at William and Mary. "It's really fun, as a coach, to see how someone develops, matures and changes from an 18-year-old to a 23-year-old. I'm blessed to be able to see it firsthand."

Hughes, or potentially Gillette product Mason Drube, could be pitching the ball this fall to a number of talented backs, beginning with the Cowboys' leading rusher in 2025, Samuel "Tote" Harris.

The former three-star recruit from Cibolo, Texas, scampered for 558 yards on 100 attempts before tearing his MCL in Wyoming's home finale against Nevada.

Markell Holman, who has bounced from Lackawanna College to St. Francis to Western Illinois, rushed for 1,063 yards last season, averaging nearly five yards per carry. Sawvel and Co. also acquired Diore Hubbard, West Virginia's leading rusher, in the NCAA Transfer Portal. He suffered a torn ACL in '25 and should be cleared for action in the fall.

The experience ends there.

Nico Hamilton returns for his third campaign on the high plains, joining holdovers Jaden Lawrence, Dontae Burch and Nikos Varelas.

Wyoming is also awaiting the arrival of Ryken Banks, a true freshman who last year rushed for more than 1,200 yards and found the end zone 25 times at Legend High School in Parker, Colo.

"Looks like it's going to be a very deep room," Taylor said, referring to his initial thoughts on the running back room. "It's still hard after two days, because we still haven't put pads on yet. It isn't real football until you get shoulder pads on."

Sawvel said following practice last Tuesday that he peered over in the direction of his defensive coordinator Aaron Bohl after Hughes turned a broken play into a 30-plus yard gain. He warned that anytime a defender loses a gap, they are in trouble, especially in a man-to-man situation.

Sawvel, who called Hughes the fastest player on the field, hopes that happens to the opposition, too.

"It will be a big deal," he said.

"Real football" is set to begin Saturday in Laramie when the Cowboys don pads for the first time this spring.