Early Monday morning Penn State announced the hiring of Marques Hagans as offensive recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach for the Nittany Lions. Hagans will be leaving Charlottesville for State College after 11 seasons with his alma mater, Virginia, most recently serving as associate head coach and wide receivers coach under the helm of Tony Elliott at the start of 2022.
After a five-year NFL career, Hagans returned to Virginia in 2011 and joined the coaching staff as a graduate assistant. Of the 15 wide receivers on UVA’s top-20 career receptions list, nine have been coached by Hagans. Over the last decade Hagan's has had an insurmountable impact on Virginia's football program that goes beyond the wide receiver room. This is a big loss for the Hoos.
"One of the greatest men I've ever known," said former Virginia linebacker Charles Snowden who was recently added to the Buccaneers practice squad.
In 2021 Virginia was the only school in the country to have five wide receivers with 500 or more receiving yards. Hagans 2021 receiving corps was part of a magical season at UVA. The Cavaliers averaged 392.6 passing yards per game and Virginia had four wide receivers with more than 600 receiving yards. All-ACC receivers Keytaon Thompson and Dontayvion Wicks led that group.
Hagans, one of the most beloved figures within the program, was a four-year letter winner at UVA from 2002-05 and currently is No. 10 all-time in passing at UVA with 4,877 passing yards.
The St. Louis Rams selected Hagans in the fifth round (144 overall) of the 2006 NFL Draft. He spent three seasons with the Rams before being picked up by the Kansas City Chiefs for the 2009 campaign. Hagans finished the 2009 season with the Washington Redskins and was released in the summer of 2010 after injuring himself in off-season workouts.
Hagans is a native of Hampton, Va., and graduated from Hampton High School where he played under legendary head coach Mikes Smith after spending two years at neighboring Bethel High School. As a junior at Hampton, Hagans led the Crabbers to the state championship in Group AAA, Division 5 of the Virginia High School League in 1998. Hampton advanced to the state semifinals in Hagans’ senior season in 1999.
Hagans will be joining another former Wahoo in State College, All-American defensive back Anthony Poindexter, who is a defensive coach at Penn State. The two have remained very close over the years and one of Hagans’ sons is named after Poindexter, who was a top candidate for Virginia's head coaching position after Bronco Mendenhall stepped down in 2021.