Navarro's Ryan Taylor at the annual SWJCFC Media Day July 28 at Hollytree Country Club in Tyler.

Three schools in the Southwest Junior College Football Conference have new head football coaches this season.

And they’ve all taken different paths to get there.

Start with the new leader right here at Tyler Junior College.

The 27-year-old Tanner Jacobson was hired in April for his first head coaching position after serving two years as an assistant coach at Snow (Utah) College, where he helped the Badgers to an appearance in the national championship game in the spring of 2021 and the national semifinals in the fall of 2021.

Jacobson said being the youngest coach in the league has no effect on him.

“It doesn’t really feel like that to me,” He said. “I’m the fifth of six children. And having worked at BYU and then at Snow College, having older people on the staff, I feel like I fit right in.”

While Jacobson is technically newer to the coaching profession, he said this was something he has been building for since he was a young boy.

“I’ve been on the sideline for Southlake Carroll since I was 8 years old, so I’ve always looked at the game like I was a coach,” Jacobson said. “I was always very aware and cognizant of how Todd Dodge acted and when I got to high school, how Hal Wasson acted. I was blessed with the privilege of getting to get coached by Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech and then at BYU with Kalani Sitake. In my eyes, my coaching career hasn’t been just the past five years as a coach, it’s how I approached the game as a player and as a ball boy. It’s been a lifelong journey, and I’m really honored to get this opportunity.”

At Cisco College, the Wranglers have turned to John O’Mera to run their football program.

O’Mera is currently ranked No. 3 on the active wins list among NJCAA coaches and is No. 21 all-time on the NJCAA wins list with a record of 143-91.

After working as a high school coach, O’Mera took over for six years as the head coach at New Mexico Military Institute.

Like Jacobson, O’Mera was 27 years old when he got his first college head coaching job.

“When I got the job, I was a 27-year-old cocky 3A high school football coach,” O’Mera said. “I don’t know why they gave me the job, but I was fortunate they did.”

O’Mera said New Mexico Military wasn’t in the SWJCFC at the time, and he would come to Trinity Valley, Navarro and Blinn to learn from coaches in the league.

O’Mera then enjoyed a long 16-year tenure at Eastern Arizona College.

“I thought everything was going great,” O’Mera said. “We actually just won the conference championship. I’m strutting around thinking I’m pretty darn good, and the next thing you know, I’m without a job.”

That was because on Dec. 11, 2018, Eastern Arizona announced it was dropping the football program.

“It was kind of a reality check,” O’Mera said. “I had just come off winning the conference championship, and nobody was beating down the door to hire you.”

O’Mera decided to go back to coaching high school, where he coached at Safford High School in Arizona.

“It was rewarding,” O’Mera said. “I had kind of given up on the idea of even going back to college when I got the opportunity to go to Cisco. I just felt I had to try one more time.”

O’Mera takes over a program at Cisco that was previously led by Ryan Taylor, who is now the head coach at Navarro College.

“It’s a good opportunity,” Taylor said. “I’ve been in the league for 10 years now, and I feel like this is one of the premier schools in the conference.”

Taylor — a former offensive lineman at Tyler Junior College in 2007-08 — coached at TJC from 2013-16, serving as the offensive coordinator in 2015-16. Taylor then went to Cisco to become the offensive coordinator for three seasons before taking over as the head coach in January 2020.

Taylor led the Wranglers to an 11-5 overall record, including an undefeated season in the spring of 2021 that culminated in a SWJCFC conference championship and a No. 3 ranking in the final NJCAA Division I football poll.

Taylor takes over a Navarro program that is ranked No. 13 in the preseason NJCAA Division I football poll.

“I think every year, it’s always a new team, so that’s always the challenge going into each season, finding out who your team is, how quick they can build together and if we can sustain that,” Taylor said. “This league is very good. There are no slouches. It’s going to battle every week. It’s the best JUCO conference in the nation. I’m just excited about the challenges of our team coming together and seeing who we are.”

Jacobson, O’Mera and Taylor all have one thing in common. All three played at a university that is moving conferences in realignment. Jacobson played at BYU, O’Mera at Oklahoma and Taylor at UCLA.

BYU is going to the Big 12, Oklahoma to the SEC and UCLA to the Big 10.

“We don’t want to talk about the Big 10 right now,” Taylor said during the annual SWJCFC Media Day July 28 at Hollytree Country Club in Tyler. “I don’t like that. I was very surprised by that move. I’m a fan of all of the traditions of college football, so seeing them not play Stanford anymore and Cal and Washington State and all of those guys, that kind of hurts me a little bit.”

Jacobson, on the other hand, said he was excited about the move.

“I actually am,” Jacobson said. “Being recruited, I had some Big 12 offers and ended up going to Texas Tech and then transferring to BYU. And my older brother (McKay Jacobson) was recruited heavily by a lot of the Big 12 schools and then ended up going to BYU. We always said in the family that BYU would be the perfect place if they were in the Big 12, and as soon as I get out of there, they move. I am really excited for the geographic tie-in now to the south where I grew up and BYU.”

Jacobson’s Apaches will host O’Mera’s Wranglers Oct. 22 at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium in Tyler. The Apaches will close the regular season against Taylor’s Bulldogs Nov. 5 in Corsicana. Taylor will have his new team, Navarro, travel to take on his old team, Cisco, on Oct. 29.