AUSTIN, Texas — Jim Schlossnagle is ready to lead the University of Texas into what he considers the “major leagues” of college baseball, the Southeastern Conference.
The newly hired coach of the Longhorns is also well aware of the raw feelings left behind at Texas A&M in the wake of his abrupt departure for an archrival.
Texas introduced Schlossnagle at a news conference on campus Wednesday, less than 48 hours after he coached Texas A&M as the Aggies lost to Tennessee in the decisive third game of the College World Series finals.
Schlossnagle, a 53-year-old Maryland native, remains within the Lone Star State, but he has headed 100 miles west from College Station to Austin to lead a program that will face Texas A&M on a regular basis with the Longhorns moving from the Big 12 to the SEC next season.
SEC teams have won the past five national championships in NCAA Division I baseball, and the Aggies taking on Tennessee marked the third time in four years that the College World Series concluded with an all-SEC matchup in the best-of-three finals. The exception during that run came in the 2022 CWS finals, when the SEC’s Ole Miss swept Big 12 program Oklahoma — which, like Texas, is about to move from that conference to the SEC.
“We have to prepare to compete in the major leagues of college baseball,” Schlossnagle said. “If you’ve never been in SEC baseball, get ready.”
Schlossnagle led Texas A&M to the eight-team College World Series twice during his three years in College Station, and now he takes over a program desperate to recapture past success.
Texas has won six national championships in baseball, but none since 2005. The Longhorns had been to the CWS three times in eight seasons under David Pierce, who was fired on Monday, hours before Texas A&M lost to Tennessee in the deciding game of the CWS in Omaha, Nebraska.
Schlossnagle apologized for his terse remarks when he was asked about the Texas job in the postgame news conference Monday night and responded: “I took the job at Texas A&M to never take another job again. And that hasn’t changed in my mind.”
In his news conference Wednesday, Schlossnagle offered an explanation on that response — along with an apology.
“I wish I could have answered that better,” he said, adding that he “didn’t intend to mislead” Texas A&M fans. “In that moment, that’s exactly how I felt.”
Schlossnagle said he understands the hurt feelings from fans who rallied behind the Aggies under his leadership.
“If I had left Texas A&M for some other school, in a different part of the country, the interesting text messages and messages that I got yesterday probably wouldn’t have happened,” Schlossnagle said. “But I get it.”
Schlossnagle said several times that the chance to reunite with close friend Chris Del Conte, the athletic director for the Longhorns, was a key element in his decision. The two worked together from 2009 to 2017 at TCU, where Schlossnagle was baseball coach from 2004 to 2021 after a two-season stint at UNLV (2002-03) began his head coaching career.
“There wasn’t anybody at Texas A&M I couldn’t trust,” Schlossnagle said. “I just know I can trust Chris.”
Schlossnagle, though, would not get pinned down on when the Longhorns first opened talks about luring him away. He insisted that while he and Del Conte “talk all the time,” it was as friends, not about work. He also acknowledged that his contract at Texas A&M had a specific buyout in case he left for Texas, “and that’s because of Chris.”
Del Conte has been at Texas since leaving TCU in 2017.
“I didn’t do this to spite anybody,” Schlossnagle said. “Many people on the A&M side will say this wasn’t done the right way. I just don’t know any other way it could have been done.”