‘I get it’: Schlossnagle addresses 12th Man frustrations during Texas press conference (2024)

Published: Jun. 26, 2024 at 1:29 PM CDT

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - Former Texas A&M baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle faced a critical crowd Wednesday morning in Austin as he addressed the media for the first time as head baseball coach at the University of Texas. Schlossnagle resigned from his role at A&M to join the Aggies’ in-state rival less than 24 hours after coaching in the national championship and was wearing burnt orange the next morning. In his opening remarks, he spoke positively of his time in Aggieland.

“I want to thank Texas A&M. This wasn’t, obviously, a move from one school to another school. This is a great rivalry and I couldn’t be more thankful and humbled by the support that I got there, that we got there, from some awesome players, staff, and administration,” Schlossnagle said. “Gen. Mark Welsh has become a very dear friend and one of the greatest leaders I’ve ever been around. I had two athletic directors who were incredibly supportive, and I have nothing but positive memories and will always comment positively about Texas A&M. I am very confident, even though it was only three years, that we left that program in better shape than we found it.”

Schlossnagle appeared Wednesday alongside former Texas A&M staffers Nolan Cain, Michael Earley, and Max Weiner, who will join him at the University of Texas. He called retaining his coaching staff the second most important criteria for moving to Texas, following his relationship with Athletic Director Chris Del Conte, who he built a close relationship with at Texas Christian University.

Schlossnagle insisted he was not in talks with Texas during Texas A&M’s postseason run and said he did not intentionally mislead Texas A&M fans when responding to a question about his rumored departure on Monday.

“In that moment, that’s exactly how I felt,” Schlossnagle said. “I made [the choice to come to Texas A&M from TCU] because it aligned both personally and professionally with what I had going on at the time, and I loved it and I dove in with every single ounce of me to help A&M have the best baseball program it could possibly have, and that investment lasted through the last pitch of the national championship game. It never wavered, not one second, I don’t care what anybody says.”

Schlossnagle did take the opportunity to publicly apologize to TexAgs reporter Richard Zane, who he criticized Monday night before quickly ending his postgame press conference. He acknowledged Zane asked “an obvious question,” then said he “wasn’t in the mood to talk about [himself] or the future.” The coach also addressed the elephant in the room, noting he understood why Texas A&M fans would be frustrated he was departing for a rival program.

“If I had left Texas A&M for some other school in a different part of the country, the interesting text messages and messages I got yesterday probably wouldn’t have happened, but I get it,” he said. “You can’t ask for your fan base to support you and be passionate like the 12th Man always has been, but really was this year -- our crowds were awesome, every single game. And so you can’t ask for that like I did, like our staff did, and then expect everyone to be okay with a coach leaving for its rival school, and I get it.”

Schlossnagle said his calculation came down to being the right personal move, not an issue with Texas A&M or the school’s leadership.

“All I can say is, I have a career, too. I have a personal life as well, I have goals, and I just simply felt like, no negative at A&M, just the positives of the alignment and, frankly, my relationship with [Texas Athletic Director] Chris [Del Conte], that I knew, there wasn’t anybody at Texas A&M that I couldn’t trust, I just know that I can trust Chris. I just know that, and as hard as that decision was, I could not walk away from it.”

Along with coaching staff departures, several Texas A&M baseball players have entered the transfer portal. Jace LaViolette, Gavin Grahovac, Kaeden Kent, Jack Bell, Hayden Schott and Max Kaufer are all currently in the portal, though that does not necessarily mean they won’t return to Olsen Field next spring.

Copyright 2024 KBTX. All rights reserved.