Texas A&M is set to lose two staffers to the Kansas State Wildcats and Collin Klein, as the former Aggie OC is set to bring over Christian Ellsworth and Jordan Peterson to Manhattan. Ellsworth spent the last two seasons coaching tight ends under Klein in College Station, and will be the quarterbacks coach up in Manhattan, while Jordan Peterson, a former Aggie player, is moving from A&M's defensive backs coach to the DC for the Wildcats.
While you don't want to have to have a high level of staff discontinuity in any measure, losing Peterson probably hurts the Aggies more than losing Ellsworth. While the tight end position got a lot more physical this year for the Ags, Peterson is widely seen as a rising star and is a top recruiter for Texas A&M.
Collin Klein set to bring two A&M staffers with him to Kansas State
A couple of Aggie signees in five-star Brandon Arrington and top-100 CB Victor Singleton have reaffirmed their commitments to Texas A&M after Peterson's departure— something that's definitely nice to see— but it's looking forward where the skies are cloudiest.
The Aggies have the makings of an elite secondary class this upcoming cycle with Raylaun Henry, Kamarui Dorsey, and Jayquan Snell already in the boat. Losing Peterson could affect those commitments, as well as the race for no. 1 overall player John Meredith III.
Meredith, a CB from Euless, Texas, is one of the top priorities for Texas A&M in the upcoming class and had spoken highly of his relationship with Peterson previously. It's Elko's defense that he'll ultimately be evaluating, of course, but it's worth noting that Peterson's role there was not a small one.
This is certainly a setback for the Aggies in a couple of ways, but it's a testament to Elko that they've been able to fill these positions so quickly. He's not been caught off-guard yet, so I'm sure he'll have an elite replacement in the building before too long.