The University of Texas announced Tuesday it is hiring Jim Schlossnagle as its new head baseball coach, taking over for David Pierce after the program parted way with its coach of eight seasons on Monday.
Schlossnagle joins Texas immediately following the end of his third season coaching Texas A&M, which ended in a loss to Tennessee in Game 3 of the College World Series. According to 247Sports, Schlossnagle told his players Tuesday he had a decision to make as to whether to remain at Texas A&M or join Texas to reunite with athletic director Chris Del Conte, who served in that same role while Schlossnagle coached at TCU. 247 also reports that Schlossnagle will bring his coaching staff with him from College Station to the Longhorns.
“I’ve known Coach Schlossnagle for a long time, and there’s no better coach, program builder, and leader in the game, and the best part is he’s an even better person,” Del Conte said in a statement. “When we were looking for our next baseball coach, we knew Schloss would be the perfect choice, and we are beyond thrilled that he’s joining our Longhorn family. He’s a guy who obviously knows our state so well, is very familiar with our program’s rich and proud history and everything Texas Baseball is all about, and absolutely checks all the boxes for this critical position. He really understands every level of building a team, develops and gets the best out of his players and coaches, recruits with the best of them and is totally dialed into the holistic growth of the student-athletes in his program. Our players, our staff, the UT community and Longhorn Nation will absolutely love him. I can’t wait to get him started and for everyone to have a chance to meet him. The future of our program is in great hands, and I’m so excited to have Coach Schloss joining our elite group of coaches as we prepare to head into the Southeastern Conference.”
With the Longhorns set to join the SEC and become a direct rival to Texas A&M, Schlossnagle’s defection from the Aggies amounts to him going turncoat in Texas baseball. It also comes after Schlossnagle admonished a reporter for asking about his potential connection to Texas’ opening, calling the reporter’s line of questioning “selfish.” “I left my family to be the coach at Texas A&M. I took the job at Texas A&M to never take another job again, and that hasn’t changed in my mind,” Schlossnagle said. “… I gave up a big part of my life to come take this job, and I’ve poured every ounce of my soul in this job. And I’ve given this job every single ounce I could possibly give it. So write that.”
Schlossnagle has served as a college baseball head coach since 2002, first at UNLV before stints at TCU, Texas A&M, and now Texas. He played college baseball at Elon before beginning his coaching career as an assistant for his alma mater.
