This offseason, the West Virginia coaching staff has seen multiple changes, with coaches departing and other coaches being brought onto the staff. The Mountaineers went 8-4 last season and won their bowl game over UNC. With many players returning, including quarterback Garrett Greene there is plenty of optimism heading into next season.
Departures
Sean Regan – Regan served many offensive coaching roles at WVU since Neal Brown took over in 2018, including tight ends coach, passing game coordinator, tight ends coach and most recently quarterbacks coach. Regan has since left to step into a bigger role at Troy as their new offensive coordinator under the Trojans’ new head coach Gerad Parker, who was also at WVU from 2020-2022. Regan was a coach at Troy from 2008-2009 and then 2014-2018.
Dontae Wright – Wright has been WVU safeties coach since 2020 and previously served the same role at Western Michigan. This offseason, Wright also joined the Troy coaching staff as their new defensive coordinator. Wright played collegiately as a linebacker at Miami of Ohio. Under Wright, WVU has seen productive play from safeties, including Aubrey Burks who has posted impressive PFF grades throughout his career.
Additions
Victor Cabral – Cabral joined West Virginia’s coaching staff this offseason as an outside linebackers coach. He was most recently the defensive line coach for Appalachian State, where he helped coach his position group to 16 sacks. Before that, Cabral was the defensive line coach for his alma mater Georgia Southern from 2018-2021 and was their recruiting coordinator from 2019-2021. On top of that, Cabral spent time coaching Georgia Military and Samford. In 2005, the Toronto native was the 24th overall draft pick by the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL.
Tre’ Bell – Bell was recently added to the Mountaineers coaching staff as a defensive analyst. He was previously the cornerbacks coach at Akron and a quality control coach at Eastern Kentucky. On top of that, he was a graduate assistant at Florida State and Mississippi State. In college, Bell played three seasons at Vanderbilt as a corner, before transferring to UCONN where he had to sit out a year due to transfer rules before playing his final season in 2017.
Ryan Nehlen – Nehlen was officially named an offensive analyst and special assistant to the head coach on Thursday. He is the grandson of a legendary Mountaineer coach and ring of honor member and played wide receiver at WVU from 2008-2012. He caught 12 passes for 101 yards and two touchdowns for the Mountaineers. Nehlen was previously at West Virginia as an offensive analyst from 2018-2022, before becoming a tight ends coach at McNeese State last season.
Promotions
Tyler Allen – With Reagan’s departure, Allen was promoted to be the new quarterbacks coach for WVU. Allen was an offensive student assistant for LSU from 2016-2018, before becoming a graduate assistant at Troy from 2018-2019. Allen was also a grad assistant at WVU from 2019-2020, then spent time as the quarterbacks coach at Jacksonville State from 2020-2022. Allen spent a year at Rice as an assistant offensive line coach, before returning to the Mountaineers, where he was most recently an Offensive Analyst/Special Assistant to the Head Coach before the promotion.
