In an interview with K State online’s Derek Young, new Aggies OC Collin Klein looks like the perfect fit heading into the 2024 season.
Whenever a new assistant coach is hired during a transition, understanding how their coaching style will impact a program is vital to projecting future success.
As a new era of Texas A&M Football under head coach Mike Elko is less than a month underway, the former Aggies defensive coordinator has already made multiple hires, starting with defensive line coach Season Spencer, new O-line coach Adam Cushing, and new cornerbacks coach Ishmael Aristide.
However, after Wednesday’s announcement that Elko has officially brought in former Kansas State offensive coordinator Collin Klein to take over as the program’s new OC, questions regarding what he’ll bring to an Aggie offense in need of a boost. Needing an insider’s perspective, On3’s Andy Staples sat down with Kansas State’s Online’s Derek Young to gain perspective on Klein’s fit under Elko’s guidance.
While his scheme will likely receive multiple tweaks based on A&M’s 2024 depth at the skill positions, Bobby Petrino, who served as the Aggies OC during the 2023 season, was never fully authorized to take over the offense to his liking completely, leading to the 7th-ranked scoring unit in the SEC. Behind Klein’s playcalling, the Wildcats, with less talent than A&M, finished 23rd in total offense and second in the high-scoring Big 12.
“We’ll put it this way. His first year as a play-caller, offensive coordinator at Kansas State, they won the Big 12 Championship and he had a top-two or top-three [rushing] offense in the Big 12,” Young stated. “The second year, everyone has questions what he can do without Deuce Vaughn, even without Adrian Martinez to an extent — even though Will Howard took over the job — without Malik Knowles at wide receiver. And all he did was No. 1 in the Big 12 in points per drive and yardage rate.
“So only two years of a sample size, but it’s about the best two years you can ask of a Power Five offensive coordinator.”
As reported earlier this week, Klein had recently been contacted by both Penn State and Notre Dame for their OC positions, as Young further noted that Klein’s “Star is rising” after serving as the Wildcats full-time offensive coordinator for just two seasons. Klein, who played for Kansas State (2008-2012) under legendary head coach Bill Snyder, was a Heisman finalist during his senior campaign, losing to Texas A&M QB Johnny Manziel.
After foregoing several professional playing opportunities, Klein’s coaching career began as a graduate assistant with K State from 2014-15, then spent a year at Northern Iowa as the quarterbacks coach in 2016.
Returning to the program that made him a household name, Klein served as the Wildcats Quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator before taking over full-time in 2022-2023.
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Built in 1948, it’s ready for a renovation led by Andy Staples.
MESA, Ariz. — A U.S. Open champ, two prominent PGA Tour stars and an NFL Hall of Famer call it home. Now Mesa Country Club, a true gem in the greater Phoenix area, is getting ready for a major renovation.
Located in an older part of the third largest city in Arizona, the club sits across the street from a cemetery and just blocks away from Hohokam Park, home to the Oakland A’s spring training.
What makes the place, though, is topography that features sometimes astounding elevation changes for a course that’s almost smack dab in the middle of the generally flat greater Phoenix area.
“Built in 1948 by William P. Bell, the Golden Age architect,” said Andy Staples of Staples Golf Design, the Scottsale-based firm hired for the renovation. “We think it was one of the first courses William P. Bell and his son William F. Bell designed together.”
What’s also attractive to many of its members is its location. The Loop 202 is just a mile to the north. Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport is less than 15 minutes to the west. Scottsdale residents – including honorary members and PGA Tour stars Max Homa and Joel Dahmen – are about 35 minutes away.
Other members include PGA Tour Champions golfers Steve Jones, who won the 1996 U.S. Open, and Michael Allen. Don’t forget 2018 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee and former Chicago Bears great Brian Urlacher.
“I first played here in 1982. Just old school. Love it,” Jones said. “You don’t get tired of this course. Small greens. You gotta have your irons under control. It’s a challenge. And the membership is just the frosting on the cake.”
A flag, golf ball and signed scorecard commemorate Joel Dahmen’s course-record 58 at Mesa Country Club in Arizona. (Todd Kelly/Golfweek)
The laid-back Mesa Country Club isn’t trying to keep its membership rolls a secret, nor does it have someone stationed at the front desk reminding everyone to take off their hats indoors. It is a private club with a relaxed atmosphere, none of the stuffy pretenses found elsewhere.
“Mesa Country Club is a special spot in the Valley, which has a lot of high-end private courses, but it’s a great country club but also has great people and has a blue-collar attitude,” Dahmen said. “You can show up in jeans, you can show up in a T-shirt. It’s just a really special spot for me. It’s like how I grew up playing golf. It’s a little more laid back, not as many rules.”
Old-school golf in the desert
As for the layout, it’s unlike most of the desert golf common in the Phoenix metropolitan area. That’s partly due to the age of the venue.
“We’re not really thought of as being an historic state for great old classic golf courses, which is one of the reasons I was hired because I have those tendencies,” Staples said.
MCC has a lot in common with Phoenix Country Club (host of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship on the PGA Tour Champions) and Arizona Country Club, also in Phoenix. All three layouts are old-school, parkland-style designs with rolling hills, huge trees and lots of grass.
Mesa Country Club has too much grass, in fact, and a reduction is a major part of the renovation. Staples said his redesign will take it from about 125 acres of sod to about 100. As you play the course, you can easily spot several areas where there will be no grass in the future – these are areas that don’t need it, as they are for the most part out of play.
Mesa Country Club
The course was built on a mesa, with several steep climbs most noticeable on:
The par-5 fifth hole, with a dramatic downhill fairway that if managed properly could lead to getting home in two.
The par-3 seventh, which has a canal rushing next to the tee box before meandering across the front of the green.
The 10th hole, a par 4 on which the back tees are on a deck right off the clubhouse, requiring a tee shot over the road that leads cars to the parking lot.
The par-3 16th, with an elevated tee box aimed at a small green that becomes narrow if there’s a back pin in play.
The par-5 18th, which will see most golfers hitting a third shot up a steep hill to a green situated just off the clubhouse deck.
Mesa Country Club in Mesa, Arizona (Todd Kelly/Golfweek)
There’s a canal that slithers about the property, crossing several fairways and forcing some golfers to rethink their second shots on a couple of the par 5s. It comes into play on five holes. There also are a couple of lakes along the ninth hole, which features the trickiest green on the course.
The course was long overdue for a renovation, with the irrigation system in greatest need of an upgrade. Staples is big on conservation and responsible water consumption, calling it a “core value of sustainable golf design.”
He’s not just looking to renovate for next season but for decades down the road.
“What I try to do in all my golf courses is do it in such a manner that is looking 20, 30, 40 years down the line. Water efficiency, labor efficiency, those costs are only going up. So water is a huge aspect.”
A major re-do of all the greenside bunkers is planned. There won’t be any new bunkers, but the existing ones will be reshaped with added depth as needed and new sand added to all of them. Fairway bunkers, meanwhile, will be left as is, as there aren’t infinite resources available. The fairway bunkers will be reworked at a later date.
A rendering of the new seventh green at Mesa Country Club in Arizona
The greens, meanwhile, suffered from the common problem of shrinkage. They’ll be restored to their original sizes and brought up to modern standards.
Brian Reed, Mesa Country Club’s vice president of the board, confirmed the course will close on Feb. 18, 2024, with a goal to reopen on Nov. 1. He said the club is committing $10 million to the project.
Staples, who likes to tell a self-deprecating joke that he’s not the son of a famous golf course architect nor does he have a major championship or two on his playing resume, does have an impressive list of renovations and new builds in his portfolio. Most notable among his renovation work is Olympia Fields Country Club in Illinois. Of the seven courses he built, Sand Hollow Resort’s Links Course in Hurricane, Utah, and the Match Course at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, stand out.
As far as the future of Mesa Country Club, Staples says it’s probably not too far down the road before the golf club invests in TifTuf, a strain of Bermuda grass that can thrive year-round around Phoenix, even in the brutal summer heat. That will render the days of overseeding with rye grass for the winter a thing of the past, giving three weeks of playing time back to the membership.
The key to this renovation, though, is keeping the course grounded in its historical style, Staples said.
“I’d like to think that my tilt towards classic architecture tipped it in my favor.”
Maason Smith will miss Week 1 as punishment for receiving improper benefits at an autograph signing in July 2021.
The NCAA’s decision to suspend star LSU defensive tackle [autotag]Maason Smith[/autotag]` for the season-opener against Florida State on Sunday has resulted in wide media backlash, not just from LSU media but from the national contingent, as well.
On3’s Andy Staples voiced his frustration with recent NCAA decisions to refuse eligibility waivers for players like Colorado’s Tyler Brown, North Carolina’s Tez Walker and Florida State’s Darrell Jackson.
“(Brown) enrolled at Colorado in December,” Staples said, per On3. “That was before the NCAA did change this rule. And yes, they said the rule change was coming. But if we all remember — the NCAA also said NIL was going to be allowed on July 1, 2021. So, when Maason Smith, the LSU defensive tackle, participated in an autograph signing about a month before that — well, he probably shouldn’t have been punished using that logic.
“Oh, wait. He’s missing the Florida State game because of doing something that is completely within the rules now. This is why everyone hates the NCAA.”
SEC Network host Paul Finebaum also took issue with the suspension.
“When I started thinking about it a month before NIL, just show some compassion,” he said. “Having seen Charlie Baker speak earlier this year in Washington DC and listening to him blame everything on the NCAA while he was the NCAA president, I walked out of there going, ‘This guy is a change agent. He’s going to do things differently.’ Two months later, I haven’t seen one thing different from the NCAA other than a bunch of hot air.
“I know it may be against the NCAA rules, but they went against their own rules at Penn State. This is where I’d like to see some leadership from Charlie Baker or someone up there saying, ‘You know what? Let’s mitigate this problem. We have a situation going on at North Carolina. We have the situation here. Let’s try to help the player.’
“Instead, they continue to make it more difficult. We’re not talking about some crazy scheme here to funnel millions of dollars. We’re talking about a 30-day window where if somebody had done it, it would’ve been legal.”
Regardless of the backlash, Smith will have to wait until Week 2’s home opener against Grambling to return from the torn ACL he suffered in last year’s season opener.
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2018 LSU Vs. Texas A&M game featured in The Athletic’s “20 most influential games of the 2000s”
In an article written for The Athletic, writer Andy Staples authored a piece listing the 20 most influential games of the 2000s, which of course included the November 24th, 2018 LSU Vs. Texas A&M game, as the Aggies defeated the LSU Tigers 74-72 in a record 7 overtimes in a packed Kyle Field, landing at No.18 on the list. Just by looking at the title of this article, Aggies everywhere remember where they were, how they felt, and probably what they were wearing during that game while jumping out of their seat nearly every play during the exhilarating seven overtime stretch.
I myself remember the night vividly, sick with a terrible head cold while thinking to myself “well, we’ll get a shot at em’ next year..” with two minutes left on the clock in the 4th quarter after a Foster Moreau 14-yard touchdown reception from Joe Burrow put LSU up 31-24, looking to seal the deal for Burrow and company. Before getting to this point, the game was hard-fought, with both teams trading touchdowns every quarter, with quarterback Kellen Mond and running back Trayveon Williams leading the way offensively for the Aggies, while future Heisman winner and national champion quarterback Joe Burrow led the charge for the Tigers.
Here is how Andy Staples eloquently detailed the final moments of the game:
LSU coach Ed Orgeron got a Powerade bath with 29 seconds remaining in regulation when the Tigers thought they had intercepted Aggies quarterback Kellen Mond to seal a win.
Unfortunately for LSU, Mond’s knee was ruled down. Texas A&M scored on the final play of regulation to force overtime. And then the game just kept going.
Ninety minutes, seven overtimes and one near-brawl later, the Aggies won 74-72. If it hadn’t been the regular-season finale for the exhausted teams, they each would have been blown out the following week.
This game forced the NCAA to re-examine how college football breaks ties. The results have been underwhelming. Now, teams must attempt two-point conversions after touchdowns in the second overtime. If the game reaches a third overtime, teams run alternating two-point conversion plays instead of offensive possessions. Essentially, this is college football’s version of penalty kicks.
We saw it last year when Illinois beat Penn State in nine overtimes that were at once compelling and wholly unsatisfying.
As explained above, as exciting as the game was for the program, and Texas A&M Aggies everywhere, the game went on much longer than the NCAA preferred, and essentially changed the rules for overtime, and so far, teams may want to completely avoid the extra period in what they see as an unfair advantage in most cases.
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Yet another reminder of how many viewers the Irish can bring in.
Everyone knows how much weight Notre Dame carries when it comes to TV ratings. To that end, a piece by Andy Staples of The Athletic, which is available only to subscribers, indicates just how often the Irish brought in big ratings during the latter half of the previous decade. Research compiled by Sports Media Watch indicates that 17 Irish games from 2015 to 2019 were members of the Four Million Club, meaning they scored at least 4 million TV viewers. Here’s where they rank compared to other programs:
If you want TV networks to pay premium prices for your games, you need games that crack the Four Million Club.
From 2015-19, 55 SEC-on-SEC games did it. 49 Big Ten-on-Big Ten games did it.
Staples dives a little further into the numbers and indicates that four of the Notre Dame games involved Pac-12 schools (two apiece against USC and Stanford). That means almost as many Irish games involving two of their annual rivals were in the Four Million Club as pure Pac-12 games. It demonstrates how much that conference would benefit from its potential alliance with the ACC and Big Ten.
The story also shows that the Irish’s 2016 season opener at Texas on ABC drew the most viewers during the aforementioned period at nearly 10.95 million. The game was a heartbreaking 50-47 double-overtime loss for the Irish. It served as a bad omen as they eventually finished 4-8, one of the worst records in program history. Fortunately, it proved to be an aberration as they have won at least 10 games every season since.
Would Penn State be worthy of being invited to a college football Super League? Absolutely, says one college football writer.
Remember in the good old days of college football conference realignment? The talk of potential super conferences with 16 members in the Big Ten and SEC, ripping apart the Big 12 and leaving the scraps for the Pac-10 (at the time)? Those were fun times, for some of us at least. Well, the fun hypothetical talk about super conferences has been awakened from its slumber, thanks to developments in the world of soccer.
For those who are unaware of what we’re referring to, here’s a quick rundown. In brief, 12 of the top soccer clubs in Europe have agreed to form their own super league as a replacement for the existing Champions League. Some of the clubs involved in the super league being formed include Real Madris, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Barcelona. You can read more about the basic info of this super league on For The Win.
Basically, this would be like Ohio State, Clemson, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Notre Dame starting up their own conference with a few chosen others. So, naturally, as we are having fun with this discussion, the question becomes where Penn State would fit into the mix. Would Penn State be considered worthy of inclusion in a super league?
According to Andy Staples of The Athletic, absolutely. The Nittany Lions would be worthy of being invited to partake in a college football super league. Penn State was named in Staples’ list of 15 programs he would include in a super college football conference.
You can read Staples’ full list here, but it does include a few other Big Ten programs. You won’t struggle to figure out which of those schools are there. Ohio State and Michigan are automatics. But a fourth Big Ten member is also included with Nebraska making the cut. Tradition and history apparently must count for something, right?
The work focused on better greens with new grass, improved bunkers and new tees that introduce better strategy for the course in Ramona.
Architect Andy Staples has completed a renovation of the course at San Vicente Golf Resort in Ramona, California, with preview play open now for members and residents while the general public and resort guests can book tee times starting March 1.
Staples and his eponymous design firm renovated all the greens, sand bunkers and tees to increase strategy while providing what he called a unique style and aesthetic to the San Diego golf market.
“This was an incredible opportunity to work with a great owner and a very unique property,” Staples said in a media release announcing the completion of the project. “Our vision from the beginning was to take this course to another level in terms of design aesthetic, playability and, of course, fun. I think San Vicente’s members and guests are going to be blown away with the improvements.”
San Vicente Golf Resort in Ramona, California, after a renovation by Andy Staples in 2021 (Photos courtesy of Michael Gainey, PGA)
Staples said the primary goal was to upgrade the infrastructure of the greens and bunkers while increasing their maintenance efficiency. The new greens feature Pure Distinction bent grass, while the turf surrounds were sprigged with Santa Ana Bermuda grass. The sand bunkers now feature Capillary Concrete liners to improve conditioning and drainage. Staples said other objectives included greater diversity of teeing yardages, tree management and overall drainage improvements.
Long-time San Vicente course superintendent Pat Shannon helped complete the project before his retirement. Australian Ben McBride will take over in that role and is in charge of opening preparations for the course, which originally was designed by Ted Robinson in 1972.
San Vicente Golf Resort in Ramona, California, after a renovation by Andy Staples in 2021 (Photos courtesy of Michael Gainey, PGA)
“I love what Andy has done in terms of how the new green complexes blend seamlessly into their surroundings,” McBride said in the media release. “It’s very similar to courses in my native Australia where short grass not only plays an integral role in how the course is presented for daily play, but how important it is for the design to match the maintenance regimen. I can tell you this will be a pretty unique look for this area.”
Staples said his other current projects include numerous master planning projects such as Olympia Fields Country Club in suburban Chicago, Mount Bruno Country Club in Montreal and the reimagined Squire Course at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Jim Phillips won’t succeed John Swofford as ACC commissioner until later this year.
Jim Phillips won’t succeed John Swofford as ACC commissioner until later this year. Still, he’s already getting pressure from outsiders to take drastic steps after he takes over. The latest proposal comes from Andy Staples of The Athletic. Only subscribers to the site can read this, but Staples wants Phillips to talk Notre Dame, for which he once was an associate athletic director, into making itself a full-time ACC member.
Frankly, Mr. Staples, we don’t care to hear about such a scatterbrained idea, and we doubt Jack Swarbrick does, either. The ACC needs Notre Dame more than Notre Dame needs it, and it should be fortunate to have the Irish involved at all. Having worked in South Bend before, Phillips, of all people, should know this and definitely would think twice before picking up the phone to submit this idea to Swarbrick.
Irish fans were pleased to hear last week that Notre Dame will resume its football independence during this upcoming season. Apparently, Staples couldn’t give them too long to relish in at least this type of normalcy in 2021. If Michigan hadn’t been so desperate to block the Irish from admission to the Big Ten a century ago, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. Now, we’ve reached a point where old habits die hard, and there’s enough money pouring in already, so return this idea to the back burner where it belongs.
The work, scheduled to begin in the fall of 2021, is intended to improve the ground game on 18 the famed Chicago-area golf club’s 36 holes.
The members at Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago have voted to undertake a comprehensive restoration and upgrade of their South Course.
The South Course comprises half the holes at Olympia Fields. The other 18-hole layout at the club is the North, which has hosted many elite competitions including two U.S. Opens (1928, 2003) and two PGA Championships (1925, 1961). The PGA Tour’s BMW Championship was held on the North in 2020, with Jon Rahm taking the playoff title.
The South Course is ranked No. 159 on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list for layouts built before 1960 in the United States. The North Course is No. 55 on that list. The South is also ranked No. 10 on Golfweek’s Best Private Courses list for Illinois, with the North No. 4 on that state-by-state list.
Course architect Andy Staples will oversee the project on the South, which includes drainage improvement, bunker renovation, fairway expansion, tree work, naturalized native rough and more short grass around the greens. Teeing grounds also will be configured in the project, which has a budgeted cost of $4 million.
Olympia Field’s South Course near Chicago (Courtesy of Olympia Fields Golf Club)
The work – which should showcase the ground game with firmer conditions than available now – will be completed in two phases, starting in the fall of 2021 and continuing again in the fall of 2022. Staples is basing his restoration efforts on his study of photos and design plans in the club’s archives as well as his study of classical design elsewhere. Staples’ previous restoration work includes Meadowbrook Country Club in Detroit, and he is now at work on Mount Bruno Golf Club in Montreal and Delray Beach Golf Course in Florida.
The South dates to a 1916 route designed by Tom Bendelow that was revised by Willie Park Jr.
Olympia Fields in the 1920s had four 18-hole courses, but some land was sold off in the 1940s. Sixteen holes of the original No. 1 course and two holes of the No. 2 course were combined to complete 18 as what became the South.
