Conner McQueen reflects on journey from A&M walk-on to Raiders staff

On Friday's edition of TexAgs Live, former A&M quarterback and current offensive quality control coach for the Las Vegas Raiders Conner McQueen joined the show. McQueen spoke about how he adopted his offensive philosophy that led him to be a part of Pete Carroll's staff.

Key notes from Conner McQueen interview

• The biggest thing is being on my feet, focusing on a good job, being good to people and value to people working around you all the time. It's been a big part of my journey, and where I am is not thinking about what's the next job. Just continuing to take care of the work, and right now, where I am, and it's a cool part of my journey, and going from California to Texas to Las Vegas with the Raiders.
   
• Coming from a coaching family... My granddad was coaching at Temple High School for 40 years. I wasn't sure what level to coach at, which is why I walked on at A&M. One of the main reasons was the opportunity to pursue my PhD in coaching and be around good coaches. My first quarterback coach was Kliff Kingsbury, and I was around Johnny Manziel and developed a great relationship with Kevin Sumlin.
   
• Going into college, I knew what I wanted to do, and the backend of sitting down in long talks with the offensive line coaches and having more conversations with Sumlin, and I wanted to go deep with his coaching journey. I turned down an accounting job in Houston that I had already accepted. I said, “Hey guys, I have something on my heart for coaching, and I would be kicking myself if I didn't go all in on it.” As I was finishing my master's, I had fun doing that more than being a player because I got involved in the hours of preparation rather than the hours of practice. It was cool to see the preparation that was led to and to see what you get from the players.
   
• With the Raiders, especially, I'm around a ton of great minds in football. You find things you like and don't like. The things I appreciated with Lincoln Riley and developing the relationship were the ability to have an adaptable and mobile offense. These are the plays we run, and we will run them. It's saying each year, your team will be different, and it's becoming the case with the transfer portal and revenue sharing, and it's a brand-new roster every year. You have to be able to adapt your scheme offensively to mold your personnel. What can our players do well instead of running 60 plays, and this is what you'll do. We rebuild every year, but not from ground zero.
   
• I had a good conversation with Riley, especially from the transition from Oklahoma to USC to the 11-12 personnel team to the 30-10 personnel in 2022. Getting to see that was cool because I brought it Incarnate Word. I find the best ways to get the ball to our playmakers and how we will do that. What's our best skill set for third downs and the red zone? It's important for the NFL level, where it's a matchup league, and around 50 guys on the game day roster who aren't suiting up. It's who my best players are to get the ball to and not start over every week.
   
• I really respect what Collin Klein is doing, what he does in the run game and builds a complementary game plan. That's the beauty of great offensive minds, and the defenses will see the runs, and then in the next series, they will see the same exact presentation. Instead of a run scheme or pass scheme play, it will be a drop-back or play-action pass. One thing I admire about Klein is his sequencing of plays. You will see something in the first quarter and something successful in the next, and in the fourth, you will get the same presentation and eventually will be a big-time gain. He makes them different, but they look exactly the same to the defenses.