James Franklin has found his new wide receivers coach.
Sean Fitz from Blue White Illustrated is first reported that Marques Hagans would be hired as the Nittany Lions new wide receiver coach replacing Taylor Stubblefield, who was fired last week.
Now, it’s official.
Welcome to Happy Valley, @CoachMHagans! 🔵⚪️#WeAre | https://t.co/DyChH9iUhm pic.twitter.com/DV2O8M0mbb
— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) January 23, 2023
Penn State was able to pry Hagans away from the Virginia Cavaliers football program, where he has a long history.
Hagans has been at Virginia for the last 11 years, the last nine serving as the wide receivers coach and was recently named associate head coach under Tony Elliott.
Prior to getting into coaching, Hagans was a standout quarterback at UVA, a four-year letterwinner from 2002-05 and finished his career with 4,877 yards passing, which is No. 10 all-time in Virginia history. After getting selected by the St. Louis Rams in the fifth round of the 2006 NFL Draft and spending short time with Kansas City and Washington, Hagans got into coaching.
Hagans is a native of Virginia and has recruited that area while with the Cavaliers, so look for that to continue at Penn State.
Franklin will look for Hagans to try and develop and get consistency out of the young Nittany Lions wide receiver depth chart which includes 4-star Kaden Saunders, 4-star Anthony Ivey, 3-star Tyler Johnson, 4-star Harrison Wallace, 3-star Liam Clifford and 3-star Omari Evans but also maximize the potential of incoming transfers Dante Cephas and Malik McClain.
