West Virginia assistant Reagan, position group goes through changes

Switching positions as a coach is an adjustment, but not quite the same as the experience that a player goes through doing the same.

It’s something that assistant Sean Reagan dealt with firsthand this winter when he was asked to make the move from quarterbacks coach to being overtop the tight ends. Reagan had served quarterbacks coach since arriving in 2019 but had to relocate after the hiring of Graham Harrell this January.

“It hasn’t been that big of a change. I approach coaching tight ends as I did coaching quarterbacks. A lot of similarities,” Reagan said.

It isn’t the first time that Reagan has been at a different position as he coached running backs at Troy so the adjustment overall is one that is made easier by his approach.

“Once you have your coaching style you just go with it and that’s what I’ve done,” he said.

And it wasn’t just his position that changed, too. The position also had a new name as the Mountaineers are referring to them as hybrids given their placement in the new offensive scheme.

“They are h’s so the guys in the room instead of being called tight ends they want to be called hybrids. Slowly transitioning to that,” he added.

Given his experience coaching offensive football, Reagan has been able to gather information when it comes to the route running aspect of things being around wide receivers and his experience coaching the running backs helped him to understand the run game concepts.

Reagan even relied on a few close confidants professionally to pick up on some detailed techniques through the use of zoom and other platforms.

It also doesn’t hurt that aiding Reagan in the transition is the fact that he has not only one, but a pair of experienced tight ends that have been through a lot of different things over the years. The pair in Mike O’Laughlin and Brian Polendey have played a lot of snaps between one another and haven’t been afraid to offer their thoughts in open dialogue positional meetings.

That means listening to those veteran and using some of the things that they have to offer.

“This game isn’t hard. It’s our job to simplify it,” Reagan said. “I’m trying to help them get the job done to the best of their abilities with the easiest way to do it.”

O’Laughlin was injured for the duration of spring ball, but that allowed for Polendey, a transfer from Colorado State, to take the majority of the reps. He displayed a good football knowledge as well as doing an excellent job in the run game. Reagan is still wanting to see improvement in him in terms of the perimeter and with his pass catching but he has certainly made strides.

“His first two steps in the run game are as good as you can be,” Reagan said. “He’ll help us this fall and when we get Mike O back we’ll have two really good tight ends,” he said.

Reagan also saw development out of two youngsters this spring in Treylan Davis and Victor Wikstrom, with the former being called upon to likely help as early as this fall while Wikstrom is still learning things.

It’s a position that West Virginia has really invested in over the past couple years and despite the changes still figures to play a significant role in the scheme.

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