Penn State Football has named Marques Hagans as the new wide receiver coach, replacing Taylor Stubblefield who had held the position since 2020.
The Nittany Lions pulled Hagans from his alma mater, the University of Virginia, where he was the wide receivers coach since 2013.
3 Things to know about new Penn State Football WR coach Marques Hagans
Hagans was a standout quarterback at UVA and played in the NFL
Hagans played football at the University of Virginia from 2002 to 2005, where he played quarterback, wide receiver, and kick returner.
Hagans started at quarterback at UVA during the 2004 and 2005 seasons and finished his career ranked number five all time in passing yards at UVA with 4877 passing yards, and still ranks in the top ten.
After his college career, Hagans was drafted in the fifth round by the St. Louis Rams in the 2006 draft. He played five years in the NFL with four different teams, the Rams from 2006-2007, the Kansas City Chiefs in 2008, the Indianapolis Colts practice squad in 2008, and Washington from 2008-2010.
Hagans finished his career with nine receptions for 108 yards.
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Hagans has only coached at UVA.
After finishing his career in the NFL, Hagans joined his alma mater as a graduate assistant with the offense for the 2011 and 2012 seasons before being promoted to wide receivers coach in 2013.
In 2022, Hagans was also promoted to the role of associate head coach for UVA. In his career at UVA, Hagans coached nine of the 15 receivers on UVA’s top 20 career receptions list, including Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus, who caught 250 passes at UVA.
Then, in 2021, Hagans coached a wide receiver room that saw four receivers go over 600 yards receiving, including two all-ACC players. Hagans has a proven track record coaching wide receivers over more than a decade and will bring that experience to Happy Valley.
This is not the first time another school has tired to poach Hagans
After the 2020 season, Hagans was highly sought after from Big Ten and SEC programs. According to John Brice at FootballScoop, Hagans was a top target for both Maryland and South Carolina in early 2021.
In the report, Hagans was identified as a “top target for [Maryland’s] passing game coordinator position” and “Shane Beamer’s top choice for the Gamecocks’ running backs coach”. Hagans was a UVA Cavalier through and through, playing and coaching his entire career at UVA and marrying former UVA basketball player Lauren Swierczek, with which he has two sons. Pulling Hagans from his alma mater could not have been easy.
This was a great hire for James Franklin that could pay dividends both on the field with Penn State’s current wide receivers and on the recruiting trail, as Penn State Football wants to stay hot recruiting in the state of Virginia.
Hagans has a long career at UVA developing wide receivers and will be stepping into a Penn State wide receiver room with plenty of talent. He will be immediately tasked with welcoming Malik McClain and, in the summer, Dante Cephas into the room.
Hagans will have spring practice to get acclimated to the roster and figure out how to get the most out of McClain, Cephas, Keandre Lambert Smith, Harrison Wallace, and plenty of younger talent that has yet to break out for the Nittany Lions.
With former five star quarterback Drew Allar at the helm of the Offense, it is imperative that Penn State surrounds him with as many weapons as possible. Penn State is building something special over the next two seasons, and Hagans has the opportunity to make a large impact on a Big Ten championship and national championship run with a relatively young but talented wide receiver room.
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Education: Saint Vincent College, Penn State Law School
Location: Washington, DC
Experience:Robert Casturo has covered Penn State football for NittanyCentral since 2022. Casturo previously covered Penn State football through a social media presence (@PSU_FB_Thoughts on X) since 2019. Casturo earned his bachelor's degree from Saint Vincent College in 2015, where he was a punter for 1 season on the Saint Vincent College football team and worked in the athletic department for 2 years as a student manager. Casturo earned his JD from Penn State Law in 2018 where he was a senior editor of the Penn State Law Review.
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