Texas A&M offensive coordinator Collin Klein has had a lot to get used to. A new boss, a new team, a new state and the blast furnace heat of a Texas summer. His charges have had to get used to something new too — his offense.
With two weeks before the Aggies take on Notre Dame to start the season, Klein told reporters that the A&M offense has made clear strides since the start of fall camp.
“I think collectively, I think we’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with things schematically, the offense and what we're trying to ask them to do,” he said. “I think our understanding of what we're trying to get done has definitely increased … The biggest thing that we're working on right now is just consistency.
I'm really pleased, all the way around. I go to every area and again, be encouraged with what, what the guys have been doing.”
One area that has been painfully inconsistent for the past couple of years has been A&M’s passing game, which has been hampered by Jimbo Fisher’s antiquated offense, multiple injuries to quarterbacks and inconsistent play. Klein said that the passing game has looked good during camp as players make adjustments to his system.
“We really have some good some bright spots throwing the football. We’ve had a number of receivers step up. I know Jahdae Walker has really made some contested catches. I know Noah Thomas is really stepping up and takin some leadership in that room and has made some huge plays for us,” he said. “I've really appreciated how Micah (Tease) competes. I mean, I mean, he really competes hard every single day, every single rep. I think it was two practices ago, had a couple really, really big time and contested catches on some conversion downs in the red zone. Cyrus (Allen) has been really good. I think he's really got a burst on, you know, to work. It gives you some chances to push the field, push the ball down the field vertically, and stretch the defense.”
Klein added another weapon to the receiver arsenal this week, with the move of 5-star Terry Bussey to receiver. In a short period of time, Bussey has shown enough to move himself into the mix for work at several positions.
“I think we will be able to move him around quite a bit. He's, even in this short time, shown a really, really high capacity, and adapted pretty quickly for with the time and how things have transpired," Klein said. "I think there's his skill set is very diverse. He's got great, natural running ability. He's got really, really good ball skills on the move, but he's obviously big and physical enough to move in the backfield and all over the field. So I think it's going to be a be a pretty diverse skill set for us. He's done a really nice job.”
Klein said he has an idea of how many receivers he’d like to use in a rotation, at least when the season kicks off.
“Anywhere from four to six,” he said. “We’ll see, depending on how things are going. Probably three to four (are) taking the majority of the load and the work, and sprinkle it in from there, based on how things go.”
During his tenure at Kansas State, Klein used the tight end position heavily in his offense. He hasn’t changed that approach at A&M, indicating multiple tight ends will be used.
“Trey Watson is really doing a nice job and runs great routes, has a good understanding of how he fits in into schemes, has good ball skills. Theo (Ohrstrom) has done some really, really good job, really good things at the point of attack, and provides you some versatility there,” Klein said. “And then, Donovan Green, coming back from injury, and Shane Calhoun, our transfer have both really done some nice things. I think we got a good, good mix of skill sets, a good, a good balance of things that each one will be able to bring to that room and give us some advantages.”
During his comments to the media, head coach Mike Elko indicated he saw the offensive line still being a work in progress as the coaches continue to look for the right combinations up front. Klein said he agreed with that assessment, and the competition for starting jobs may continue on for more than the next two weeks.
“There's a high level of competition in a couple different spots. I think that'll carry on even over just even the next couple weeks, but probably even into the early season of of kind of mixing and matching some some combinations to find that right group and keep people fresh. And thankfully, we've got a couple guys that provided us that versatility,” he said. “At center, Mark Nabou has done a really nice, and Koli (Faaiu)’s done a tremendous job. Those two are part f the mix that (Elko’s) talking about.”
Even though competitions continue on the offensive line and elsewhere, the actual scheme has been fully implemented.
“Everything’s been in for the last, probably, five or six days, minus some new one stuff and some special situation stuff here and there,” Klein said. “I think we intentionally push them really, really hard and try to build as broad a foundation as we can to make sure that we can build and use everything that we're going to need through the course of a long year. And so I’m really, really proud of how they've attacked it. I think we're not as consistent as I would like right now across the board, but we've made great progress.”