Hayden Schott can't keep calm after Texas A&M's Kaden Kent decides to withdraw from transfer portal
Texas A&M's Kaden Kent is going nowhere, and his teammate Hayden Schott is excited about it. Kent joins All-American Jace LaViolette and SEC Freshman of the Year Gavin Grahovac as the latest of the 2024 Texas A&M roster to announce that they are not leaving the school. When head coach Jim Schlossnagle left the school within 24 hours of the Aggies' loss to Tennessee in the College World Series final, it caused a bit of a crisis.
To celebrate Kaden Kent's announcement, Hayden Schott posted on X:
"Kaden Kent AKA JOHNNY BASEBALL IS BACK BABY!!!"
Grahovac, for his part, took to Instagram and posted a series of photos as an Aggie with the caption:
“Staying where I belong…the show must go on #gigem.”
Trev Alberts and the Texas A&M authorities reassure the baseball program
The season ended on a bittersweet note. Despite achieving their best ending ever in a College World Series, they nonetheless lost. To add insult to injury, they almost immediately lost the architect of their successful season. The exit, and especially the manner of the exit, of Schlossnagle caused a crisis of faith in the future of the baseball program — hence the initial number of transfer portal requests.
Nonetheless, Texas A&M's Athletic Director Trev Alberts and his staff got fast to work to recover the faith in the program. The designation of hitting coach Michael Earley as the new baseball head coach was key to the recovery of morale in the team. On Tuesday's presentation of Earley as the new head coach, Alberts also laid out what he called the "vision" for Texas A&M baseball:
"People ask me all the time, ‘What’s your shared vision for the baseball program?’ Number one, we’re going to have the best coaches in college baseball. We’re going to hire servant leaders, coaches where it’s not about them, it’s about serving these guys, we’re going to have the best development program in college baseball because that’s what (Earley) is all about, right?"
That came with the announcement that Texas A&M will invest $80 million into Blue Bell Park. The expectation, according to Alberts, is to turn the venue into the best stadium in college baseball.