New Penn State receivers coach Marques Hagans brings established reputation to State College: Career timeline

Penn State is hiring Marques Hagans as its new receivers coach to replace Taylor Stubblefield. The longtime college football coach brings an established reputation to State College.

A 40-year-old from Hampton, Va., Hagans spent his last and only 11 seasons as an assistant at his alma mater, Virginia. He worked previously with current Lions co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Anthony Poindexter with the Cavaliers.

Get to know him below.

Hagans had success as a player

Like Penn State current corners coach Terry Smith, Hagans will and has led a position that he did not play in college. He was a quarterback for Virginia. After only playing some his first two seasons on campus, Hagans threw for 2,000-plus yards in back-to-back seasons and a total of 27 passing touchdowns. He also returned a punt for a score as a freshman and could run the ball some, as well, and is in the school’s top 10 for all-time passing yards and all-time total offense

Hagans went on to become a fifth-round pick of the then St. Louis Rams in the 2006 NFL Draft. He learned to play receiver at the pro level, and appeared in six games over a six-year career that also took him to Kansas City, Indianapolis, and Washington. He played in six NFL games, finishing with nine catches for 108 yards.

After finishing his pro career in 2010, Hagans immediately went into coaching.

How much experience does new Penn State receivers coach Marques Hagans have?

The answer is a lot. Hagans was a two-year graduate assistant at Virginia from 2011-2012. He then moved into his first full-time position as the program’s receivers coach in 2013. He’s been there ever since.

Current NFL receiver Olamide Zaccheaus is one of Hagans’ success stories. He had nearly 3,000 receiving yards at the college level and 22 touchdowns In 2019, UVA was one of few college teams nationally to have multiple receivers top the 70 receptions mark. Keytaon Thompson and Dontayvion Wicks were all-conference selections in 2021. Nine of the top 20 players on the receptions leaderboard at Virginia have been coached by Hagans. Only one of them has been drafted, though. But, that shouldn’t overshadow what Hagans’ players produced in college.

Hagans inherits a room that will require some rebuilding with two likely NFL Draft picks moving on and no clear number one option. But, if his track record shows anything, it’s that he’s capable of taking players who have not yet thrived and guiding them to do so.