Texas A&M’s 2025 season is officially a thing of the past nearly two months later, and third-year head coach Mike Elko is focused on moving forward, knowing the spring football season provides another opportunity to evaluate the current roster, which currently includes 17 recruits from the transfer portal.
Just days before a first-round College Football Playoff game against Miami, second-year offensive coordinator Colin Klein has accepted the job as Kansas State’s next head coach as the former Wildcats star quarterback has been the favorite to take over, leading to Mike Elko’s most critical coaching change of the offseason yet.
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With a number of interesting outside options available, Elko chose to promote associate offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Hallmon Wiggins, which feels like the plan all along, as he decided to promote four other coaches, including assistant Lyle Hemphill, as the new defensive coordinator.
Wiggins, who has not played in a game during his long coaching career at Alabama and his final two seasons with the Aggies, received another vote of confidence from the head coach on Monday afternoon, largely due to his impressive resume as the longtime WR coach and assistant head coach under former Alabama coach Nick Saban.
“We felt like it was something that was natural and made sense.”
“He’s very excited about it and very excited about it. … Game calls are new, but at some point, you have to do it for the first time. Someone has to believe in you to do it, and I trust him.”
After going 11-2 and 7-1 in SEC play, Elko has earned the right to trust his instincts when it comes to personnel changes, and after serving as co-offensive coordinator last season, I don’t expect the offense led by redshirt junior quarterback Marcel Reed to be much different beyond new wrinkles in the passing game and possibly the running game.
What’s more, Wiggins will be surrounded by an elite group of assistants, including offensive line coach Adam Cushing, wide receivers coach John Perry, and new offensive analyst Drew Hollinghead, who served as Coastal Carolina’s offensive coordinator last season.
“What we have in Hallmon (Wiggins) is a really, really elite football coach who has been in some elite systems and learned from some of the elite coordinators in the country. “I have a lot of confidence in the group of guys he has around him.”
Time will tell if Hallmon Wiggins is the right choice to lead the Aggies’ offense, but considering the offensive talent, which now includes Alabama transfer receiver Isaiah Horton, joining star wide receiver Mario Claver, the first-year OC can’t blame a lack of talent if things go wrong.
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This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: Texas A&M HC Mike Elko has ‘a lot of confidence’ in OC Holman Wiggins
