Mike Elko explains why Collin Klein was right hire for Texas A&M offense

When Mike Elko started the search for his offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, he locked himself in his office and started looking at the tape. In the process, he came across Collin Klein at Kansas State – and he knew he had his man.

Klein spent the last two seasons as K-State’s offensive play-caller, helping the Wildcats to the second-best scoring offense in the Big 12 in 2023 after ranking sixth in the league in 2022. It was an impressive leap, and Elko went on to bring him aboard as he got his staff together at Texas A&M.

Of course, Elko has a unique perspective when looking at the film as a former defensive coordinator. But he also wanted to go beyond the X’s and O’s, and he thought Klein fit what he was looking for in his OC.

“What I do is I sit down and I watch guys that I think makes sense for us, and study them as if I was a defensive coordinator and just kind of look through the schematic challenges they present,” Elko told Andy Staples on Andy Staples On3. “How they sequence plays, how they maneuver their offense throughout the season. I did that with a handful of potential candidates that I thought made sense.

“And then, got a chance to kind of hone in on Collin and really talk to him and spend some quality time with him. … He’s also about as gritty a quarterback as there ever was. I just think it kind of matched.”

Mike Elko: Collin Klein’s philosophies ‘married very well’ with what he wants to do at Texas A&M

Klein starred as a quarterback at K-State from 2008-12 and finished as a Heisman Trophy finalist as a senior. Despite professional opportunities, he returned to the Wildcats as a graduate assistant from 2014-15 before a year as the quarterbacks coach at Northern Iowa in 2016. But Kansas State brought him back in 2017 as the team’s quarterbacks coach, and he moved up to co-offensive coordinator briefly in 2018 before taking on sole offensive coordinator duties the last two seasons.

Now, he’s getting ready to bring his offense to Texas A&M, and Elko said it’s already a good dynamic by pairing Klein’s offense with his defense.

“He’s a great human, he’s extremely intelligent, he’s very bright. He’s got a really good feel and pulse on how he wants to attack defenses,” Elko said. “And I think our philosophies married very well together, our personalities married very well together. He’s obviously been a great addition for us here.”