Allen brings right mix of experience, familiarity to role
West Virginia didn’t have to go far to fill the latest coaching staff vacancy.
Assistant Coach Sean Reagan took the offensive coordinator role at Troy which opened up the quarterbacks coach job for the Mountaineers in the process.
That led to Tyler Allen being promoted from his role of offensive analyst and special assistant to the head coach to a full-time assistant.
Allen was the natural choice if head coach Neal Brown elected to stay in-house for a variety of reasons. For one, Allen has experience working with the quarterbacks both as a graduate assistant in Morgantown and then as a full-time coach at Jacksonville State for two seasons.
During his time with the Gamecocks, Allen was involved in all areas of game planning, helping renovate the pass, run-pass-option and screen game of its offense. During his two seasons there, Allen also coached Zion Webb who earned all-conference first-team honors at the quarterback spot.
It’s a role that Allen is ready for after handling a number of responsibilities since returning to Morgantown ahead of the 2022 season. As part of his current role, Allen is charged with organizing, implementing and maintaining all aspects of game analysis for the offense. He also tracks statistics during practice and competition, while analyzing game plan and assisting with game prep.
Allen also has a role with on-campus recruiting operations and manages the offensive graduate assistants along with other roles.
Given the fact that Allen has previously served in a full-time role as a quarterbacks coach and his familiarity with Brown and the program made this an ideal fit given the trust there. It also helps that Allen is a young assistant that will bring energy on the recruiting trail after serving in the role in the past and stepping in at times for the Mountaineers.
That trust factor is important because of who Allen will be replacing.
Reagan was one of a handful of remaining coaches that had been on staff since head coach Neal Brown took over the West Virginia football program in 2019. He had served as the quarterbacks coach for four of those years and this past season also served as the passing game coordinator.
Reagan did spend the 2022 season as the tight ends coach when Graham Harrell was on staff, but for the most part had primarily worked with the signal callers during his time in Morgantown.
For Reagan, it’s a return to Troy, where he opened his college coaching career as a graduate assistant in 2008-09 before leaving for Texas Tech. He would then serve as a full-time assistant on the Trojans staff in multiple roles from 2011-18 handling quarterbacks, running backs and offensive coordinator.
Given the fact that Reagan had been with Brown for quite some time there was clearly a trust between the two and the former was heavily involved with game-planning on the offensive side.
Allen will now have his chance to make the most of this opportunity and bring some fresh perspective in the process. West Virginia is coming off a 9-4 season and will return redshirt senior quarterback Garrett Greene this fall.
He is coming off a season where he threw for 2,406 yards and 16 touchdowns, while rushing for 772 yards and 13 more touchdowns.
And it says a lot about how Brown feels about Allen by giving him that responsibility.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan
