Jaylen Henderson believes Collin Klein's offense is 'tailor-made' for him
Amid an offseason of change for Texas A&M, the Aggies brought in Collin Klein to be the team’s next offensive coordinator. It’s a move that excited quarterback Jaylen Henderson.
In particular, Henderson compared what Klein called at Kansas State to what he feels his strengths are as a quarterback.
“I feel like it’s tailor-made for me, the stuff that Coach Klein did with Will Howard,” Jaylen Henderson said. “I can do a lot of the same stuff. So, I feel like it’s definitely tailor-made for me and I’m excited to get rolling.”
Collin Klein, who played quarterback at Kansas State, has been the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator since 2022 and was the team’s quarterback coach since 2017. During that time, Kansas State has consistently produced some of the best offenses in the Big 12 and he played a key role in the development of Will Howard.
For his part, Jaylen Henderson is going to be entering his second season with Texas A&M. He previously played for Fresno State before transferring in ahead of the 2023 season. In five games, he threw for 715 yards and six touchdowns. He also ran for 104 yards and two touchdowns.
Unfortunately, Henderson suffered a humerus fracture that required surgery in the Texas Bowl.
“I’ve never broken or got hurt like that,” Henderson said of the injury. “I didn’t know if it was dislocated or broken. I was like, ‘Is it out?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, something is dislocated.’ But, it was my bone that was out, so he had to pop it back in to stabilize it. It was very uncomfortable. I couldn’t sleep like the first three or four days. But then, after that, everything has like gotten better every day. My range of motion is coming back. I can bend it. I can throw right now.”
Mike Elko explains what led him to hiring Collin Klein as offensive coordinator
Shortly after bringing in Collin Klein as the team’s next offensive coordinator, head coach Mike Elko explained his decision-making process.
“That obviously, I think, was the priority hire because that’s the one that everybody wants to know. What will the offense look like and what will the scheme look like? We’d have had a heck of a time trying to recruit without that position. I kind of locked myself in my office, and you go through names that you think make sense and you have some names that you think fit. And then you really just dive into, ‘What does this offense look like? How do they sequence plays, how do they play-call, how does it evolve game to game?’” Elko said.
“That’s a process that, to me, you can’t play around with. I don’t really take anyone’s word for that at all. That’s something I just dive into myself. I did the same thing when I got to Duke. One, he’s extremely bright. Like, extremely bright. And I think the way he can teach our young men how to execute on offense, really, kind of took me real quick. And I think diversity in how he attacks people. I think if you watch his offense from this year vs. last year, it’s completely different based on his personnel, what they emphasize. It’s not, obviously, a completely different scheme, but it’s completely different in terms of how they’re emphasizes different players. I like how he mixes up tempos, I like how he mixes up personnels.”