Hagan: One man wrecking crew
Redshirted senior running back Roger Hagan is the final captain of the Javelina football team who is not just a workhorse for the offense but a workhorse for the game itself.
Hagan is another captain who believes in leading by example and mentoring the talented athletes around him.
“Now that me and Jackson are seniors, you know, it’s kind of like we’re mentors now. Now that we’re here we’ve been showing the young guys the ropes. It’s a pretty cool experience,” Hagan said.
Being a leader is one of Hagan’s skills but in his career he’s already eclipsed 1,000 career rushing yards ,which doesn’t come without Hagan’s constant grind every day.
“The more experience of reps that I’ve got over the past years, it kind of helped me get a better feel for the game when I’m in the game. This experience of reps helps me do what I do,” Hagan said.
Even Offensive Coordinator Sean Lagerstrom preached on how much Hagan loves the grind and how it has attributed to his success.
“The success that he’s had is largely based on his work ethic and his desire to show up every day and continue to put his best foot forward. No matter how well he’s playing, he knows he can continue to get better and it’s that desire to come every day to continue to get better,” Lagerstrom said.
With such a talented run game, Lagerstrom can see his offensive vision take shape upfront with Hagan’s stellar play.
“Anytime you can run the ball, it’s going to open up your pass game as well. We want to be physical up front and he helps bring that physicality out of the backfield as well. We always talk about making the first guy miss and he obviously does a great job of that running through them, but he does a really good job in terms of the physicality,” Lagerstrom said.
Again, Hagan is a huge part of the success of the offense no matter what he does – whether its leadership or skill.
Running Back Coach Jeric Smith sees how Hagan does even the little things right by uplifting and coaching his fellow running backs even when he’s not on the field.
“He celebrates everything that they do. When they do it right, he does a good job of supporting them. Whenever they do something wrong, you know, he’ll coach them up, too. So, he’s helped me out a lot,” Smith said.
Smith can see the impacts of Hagans’ leadership rub off on the running back room and he sees how it is going to set the Javelinas up in the future.
“We take a lot of pride in that our room is deep and they’re eager to get on the field. They also support each other so we’ve got a pretty good running back culture in our room,” Smith said.
Hagan’s performances in the past few weeks have him on pace to finish with a 1,000 yard rushing season which will set up the Javelinas for a dominate second half of the season.
