Morgantown, West Virginia – At tonight’s West Virginia versus Oklahoma State basketball game, Mountaineers head football coach Neal Brown had a very special guest with him.
Tyson Bagent, 6’3 quarterback who won the Division II National Player of the Year award for the Shepherd University Rams this past season, sat next to Brown and offensive lineman Doug Nester, cheering on the Mountaineers.
Bagent recently entered the transfer portal, but later admitted that he would prefer to stay at Shepherd unless “Nick Saban came knocking on his door to offer him a scholarship.” Although Bagent didn’t mention Neal Brown at the time, he is from Martinsburg, West Virginia, and has dreamed of representing his home state by playing for the Mountaineers his whole life.
Bagent is an experienced, three-year starter who could immediately step in and start for West Virginia while the young, talented quarterbacks already on the roster developed.
Bagent has been exceptional during his career at Shepherd, passing for 12,454 yards, 118 touchdowns and only 40 interceptions, averaging 327.7 yards per game in his three full seasons with the Rams.
Bagent’s most impressive game of the 2021 season came against East Stroudsburg, where he went 27/45 for 437 yards, 6 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, and Shepherd is 30-8 with Bagent as the starting quarterback.
In addition to winning the Harlon Hill Trophy, Bagent was also named the Division II Offensive Player of the Year, was named to the Division II Elite 100 First Team and was a member of the Associated Press Division II All-American First Team.
At Martinsburg High School, Bagent led the Bulldogs to two state championships, passing for 7,800 yards and 112 touchdowns. Despite this, he was unfortunately overlooked by the head coach of the Mountaineers at the time, Dana Holgorsen, who did not make recruiting in-state players a real priority.
Expect Bagent to visit the campus and facilities tomorrow, meet with the coaches and decide whether to commit to the Mountaineers over the next couple of days. The odds of him playing for West Virginia next season look very, very good right now!
