Texas A&M is riding a historic season of success the nation’s No. 7 overall seed into the 12-team College Football Playoff, which opens in less than two weeks.

Second-year Aggies coach Mike Elko also is navigating staff transition as he prepares for a new offensive coordinator with incumbent play-caller Collin Klein set to take over at his alma mater, Kansas State.

Success, inevitably, brings staff change.

The Aggies are looking to fortify their offensive staff with an addition from a fellow Southeastern Conference program: Kentucky.

Multiple sources tell FootballScoop that Derek Shay is in deep discussions to exit the Bluegrass to join Elko’s Texas A&M program. He is going to become the Aggies’s tight ends coach in January after strongly deliberating the opportunity to stay and become a part of Will Stein’s inaugural Kentucky staff. 

It’s set to be a fourth SEC program for Shay, who also owns a previous stop as a senior offensive analyst at Missouri and work as an assistant tight ends coach at LSU.

Shay also owns play-calling experience at a national high school, previously serving as the offensive coordinator at prep powerhouse IMG Academy for three seasons from 2017-19.

Other stops include McNeese State and for then-head coach Charles Huff’s Marshall Thundering Herd in 2023.

A former offensive lineman as an Football Championship Subdivision player at Western Illinois and Eastern Illinois, Shay also coached the offense at Indianapolis, Indiana, program Warren Central High School.

The Aggies won their first 11 games in the 2025 season, scoring an early-season upset at Notre Dame in a 41-40 thrilled that helped propel Texas A&M to share of the SEC’s best regular-season record.

Debuting at No. 3 in the CFP Top 25 last month and holding there for several weeks before a loss to rival Texas, the Aggies are set to host 10th-seeded Miami Dec. 20 at noon ET in the Playoffs’ opening round.

Elko is also going through the process of finding a replacement for Klein at the top offensive assistant position. A former star quarterback at Kansas State, Klein helped Texas A&M to the nation’s No. 14 scoring offense at 36.3 points per game, touchdown-per-game increase; No. 20 in total offense at 454.4 ypg.

In addition to a number of external candidates, current Aggies co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Holmon Wiggins also is contention for the coordinator post.

Wiggins was on staff at Alabama for the final five seasons of the Nick Saban era from 2019-23; he was the Tide’s assistant head coach of offense and also tutored their wide receivers.