"I wanted to have some certainty with the future": Jim Schlossnagle finally breaks silence on leaving Texas A&M for Longhorns in 2024
New Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle has broken his silence on leaving Texas A&M for the Longhorns days after the Aggies lost to the Tennessee Volunteers in the 2024 College World Series finals.
During an interview with SEC Now, Schlossnagle stated he signed up with the Longhorns to ensure his future.
"There's a lot of uncertainty in college athletics as we all know. And there's gonna be uncertainty everywhere. But the one thing I know of that is relatively certain is my relationship with Chris (Texas athletic dirctor Chris del Conte)," Schlossnagle said.
Del Conte was Schlossnagle's former boss at Texas Christian University and the coach valued the friendship with del Conte, whom he described as a lifelong friend.
"It's more of my relationship with Chris. I don't wanna coach forever. And so for the remainder of which I do wanna coach. I wanted to have some certainty with the future," the 53-year-old said.
Jim Schlossnagle felt differently when new Texas A&M AD came into town
Jim Schlossnagle, who guided the Texas A&M Aggies to a 53-15 record en route this past season, noted he felt that his job with Texas A&M became different from what he was supposed to do as a coach and that was one of the factors that made him decide on leaving the Aggies coaching post.
"I don't think that there's no tipping point reason. It was just I took a job under one pretense with an athletic director in Ross Bjork and Trev (Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts) is gonna do some great things at Texas A&M. There were things that led me to ... It's just became a different job," he said.
Schlossnagle noted he believes the Aggies will still perform well next season under a new coach but reiterated that the offer Texas had given him was too much to turn down.
The Texas Longhorns program Schlossnagle is about to coach in the 2025 college baseball season has already won six national titles but is looking to end the 20-year title drought. They last won the national championship in 2005 when it swept No. 6 Florida in the best-of-three final.
The last time Texas made the College World Series was in 2022 and the Austin-based squad looks to return to the CWS in its debut stint with the SEC.
Will the Texas Longhorns win their seventh national title under Jim Schlossnagle? Let us know your views in the comments section.