Notre Dame football once pursued OC Collin Klein. Now it must stop his Texas A&M offense.
SOUTH BEND — More than 18 months after Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman showed strong interest in hiring Collin Klein as his offensive coordinator, the two will meet again on Saturday night in College Station.
Lured away from Kansas State to Texas A&M after last season, the former Wildcats quarterback will match wits with Freeman and Irish defensive coordinator Al Golden in the season opener for both teams.
“Very creative mind,” Freeman said Monday. “You’re preparing for a lot more than what you’re really going to see. We have to be able to settle down and say, ‘OK, here’s the things we think we’re going to see’ or that we are seeing the first couple of series, and ‘here’s what we want to do defensively.’ “
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Klein, now 34, reportedly took his name out of consideration on Feb. 10, opting to stay in Manhattan rather than fill the void left by Tommy Rees’ departure for Alabama. Notre Dame also pushed for longtime Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig in that hiring cycle before staying in-house to promote then tight ends coach Gerad Parker.
With Parker now the head coach at Troy after an uneven 2023 season as a first-time play caller, Notre Dame enters 2024 with veteran OC Mike Denbrock. Had Klein signed on with the Irish in early 2023, perhaps Denbrock’s third tour in South Bend never happens.
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Then again, Klein landed at A&M only after Denbrock reportedly turned down the Aggies’ offer last December. Denbrock, 60, left LSU for a four-year deal at Notre Dame two weeks later.
After getting a significant salary bump to $825,000 per season on a two-year deal at Kansas State, Klein is working on a three-year, $5.1 million deal with the Aggies. A&M head coach Mike Elko, Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator in 2017, left Duke after two seasons to return to College Station, where he ran the defense from 2018-21.
“More than anything as you watch (Klein’s) offenses at Kansas State, he does a great job of utilizing different personnel, formation shifts,” Freeman said. “I remember at the time that we were looking for an offensive coordinator, what attracted me to what they did at Kansas State was their ability to use multiple tight ends, to have some type of what I call the pro-style offense and have success doing it.”
Kansas State improved from 37th nationally in scoring offense in 2022 to 10th (37.1 points per game) last season. According to Pro Football Focus, Klein’s final two offenses at his alma mater graded out best in rushing (15th and tied for 15th with Rees’ only Alabama group) while finishing as high as tied for 23th overall and 50th in passing.
“You see the same thing, even this past year, when you watch his film,” Freeman said. “A lot of different formations, a lot of different personnel (groupings), utilizing multiple tight ends.”
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In March of 2023, Klein told Kansas State reporters it was a “tremendous honor” to draw interest from Notre Dame.
“Going through the process, the Lord really put it on my heart that there was still work to do here,” Klein said. “My players and knowing that my mission here isn’t done … were really the two things that made me at peace with knowing I was supposed to be here.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for NDInsider.com and the South Bend Tribune. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football set to face ex-OC target Collin Klein at Texas A&M
