Texas A&M is set to hire Collin Klein as its new offensive coordinator, according to reports out of both College Station and Manhattan on Wednesday.
The move is a significant one for Mike Elko, pulling Klein from his alma mater after he previously turned down overtures from Penn State and Notre Dame.
"The Lord really put it on my heart that there was still work to do here," Klein said after turning down the Irish last year. "My players and knowing that my mission here isn’t done and my guys were really the two things that made me at peace with knowing I was supposed to be here.”
Klein was the Big 12 Athlete of the Year in 2012 -- he came in third to Johnny Manziel in that season's Heisman Trophy voting -- and entered coaching in 2014 as a GA at his alma mater. He began coaching quarterbacks at Northern Iowa in 2016, then returned to Manhattan as QBs coach the following year.
Klein will bring an emphasis on the run game with him to College Station. K-State finished 15th nationally in rushing each of his two seasons running the Wildcats' offense; Texas A&M finished 79th and 89th over the same time period.
The quarterback run game was a major part of Klein's offense at K-State. Adrian Martinez and Will Howard combined for 146 rushes en route to the 2022 Big 12 championship, and this season Howard and Avery Johnson ran the ball a combined 126 times.
Whether that continues with Conner Weigman, or whether Weigman and/or A&M seek different alternatives, will be a story to watch in the coming days.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.