MEADVILLE, Pa. -- Allegheny College's head football coach, Braden Layer, announced two changes to the coaching staff for the upcoming 2025 season, which includes one promotion and one new hire.

Third-year assistant Jake Taggart has added special teams coordinator to his duties along with his role as Allegheny's wide receivers coach. Additionally, Tyler Wills has joined the Gators and will direct the outside linebackers.

Layer hired Taggart shortly after accepting the head coach position in March 2023. A former Division I student-athlete as a tight end at Lafayette College, Taggart enters his third year as Allegheny's wide receivers coach in 2025. He mentored two All-Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) selections over the last two seasons and worked with standout receiver Declan O'Brien '24 during his record-breaking season in 2023. Taggart will now oversee Allegheny's special teams this fall, a unit that blocked multiple kicks and scored twice on fumble returns in 2024.

Wills joins Allegheny following stints at Christopher Newport University and Averett University. His coaching career began at Averett, where he completed his MBA as a graduate assistant in 2022 and 2023. Wills served as a recruiting coordinator in his second season with the Cougars while working with the team's tight ends. In 2024, he coached running backs and tight ends at CNU, helping the Captains to a 7-3 record with the second-ranked rushing offense in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC).

As a student-athlete, Wills was a four-year member of the football program at Emory and Henry University in Emory, Virginia, from 2018-21. The Wasps, then members of the Division III Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC), posted a 20-13 overall record during his tenure as an offensive lineman and long snapper. He also earned a letter on the men's tennis team in 2021-22, helping the Wasps go 13-6 as a key member of the doubles lineup. Wills, a two-time All-ODAC Academic Team selection, graduated from E&H with a bachelor of arts in health and human performance in the spring of 2022.