Coach Buzz: Texas A&M Hires TCU’s Schlossnagle As Head Coach
Coaching Buzz
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Texas A&M hired TCU’s Jim Schlossnagle as its next head coach, replacing long-time Aggies head coach Rob Childress, who did not have his contract renewed following the 2021 campaign.
Schlossnagle, a 50-year-old, Hagerstown, Md., native, recently guided TCU to the Big 12 regular season and tournament championships, and the Horned Frogs finished the season with a 41-19 overall record and a top eight national seed.
The long-time Horned Frogs head coach now takes on a new challenge in College Station, and he brings some impressive results along with him.
Schlossnagle has had quite the coaching career during previous stops at UNLV and TCU. Though he only spent two seasons at UNLV, the Rebels were trending the right direction and the Frogs took notice. TCU experienced a wealth of success in Schloss’s 18 seasons with the program.
Including the 2021 campaign, Schlossnagle guided the Frogs to three Big 12 regular season titles, 15 NCAA tournament appearances, seven Super Regional appearances, and most impressive of all, five College World Series appearances, including four-straight from 2014-17. To put that mark into perspective, the Aggies have reached the CWS only six times in program history.
Schlossnagle has a 55-36 career record in the NCAA tournament and finishes his Horned Frogs tenure with a 693-330 overall record. In addition to those marks, Schlossnagle earned National Coach of the Year honors in 2010, and again in 2016. This won’t be the first time Schlossnagle has had a chance to coach in the SEC. He was courted by Mississippi State in the summer of 2018, but decided to stay put in Fort Worth. Now, he gets to try his hand in arguably the nation’s premier conference.
As the long-time Frogs head coach takes off the purple and puts on the maroon, the expectation level in College Station will only increase.
The Aggies parted ways with Childress after the successful head coach made a whopping 13-straight NCAA tournament appearances before failing to reach the SEC tournament and NCAA tournament this season. Childress had success with the Aggies, but A&M athletic director Ross Bjork is aiming for more. The goal with bringing in Schlossnagle is to build on those results, get to Omaha and win games, and ultimately compete for the national title for the first time in program history.
Accomplishing that goal won’t be easy, but the Aggies have all the resources necessary, and a significant, additional renovation project is soon on the way at Blue Bell Park.
Schlossnagle will have other resources at his disposal. The Aggies are making a strong financial commitment to the program, and the long-time head coach is expected to have an excellent, highly acclaimed coaching staff with the expected assistant salary. Look for some high-profile names who are currently playing in the NCAA postseason to be part of his staff.
Texas A&M has always been relevant, to an extent, in college baseball on the national stage. But now, with the addition of Schlossnagle, it aims to take that next, biggest step.
It’s a new era in Aggieland.
Jersey color down•grade, but…Yikes!
In my opinion TCU should go after the Dallas Baptist coach. ASU is interested in him but I think TCU would have the inside track. He might not even have to move.
STILL don’t belong in the SEC….
Completely disagree-they are a great fit in the SEC
Dumbest shit I’ve ever heard
I am curious why you say that and who you support? Personally I think Arky. Mizzou and Nebraska would benefit from moving back to the Big 12 but ATM has benefitted from the move to the SEC and their presence gets the SEC into Texas.
The old SW Conference—I like regional alignments. Aggies belong playing the ‘horns….them was the days!
I will have to to admit I do miss Tech playing the ags.
Lunch break—I’ve got a few more minutes to expand on why I’d prefer the old regionally based conferences; the mega-conferences are designed for media markets and football, which doesn’t play as well for the other sports. W/ the big conferences you’re stretched into divisional play that narrows opportunities for cross conference play, because everybody is focused on trying to play for the divisional/conference title, and most AD’s don’t want to have their teams take on tough out of conference competition, because who wants to get beat up on the weekend that should be a rest and recoup outing, meanwhile good mid-majors are pining for a chance to meet the top ranked clubs. I think it’s overall good for the fans to see more conference against conference play; the SEC could pare up more w/ the ACC and the SWC, or a weekend agains the Big 10, the SWC could split time w/ the PAC, WEstern conferences and the Big 8 as could those conferences w/ each other, and then the East Carolinas, Coastals, DBU’s, the endless number of damn good florida programs and california mids could get more opportunities to meet the big marquees. Nobody liked this year’s Covid constrained inner conference only play, and too much conference commitment makes it look more like that each year. Regional pride would be more regional, not brand name conference that’s little more than commerce…just my opinion, but I liked it the way it was. Big mega conferences suck!
Money wise, you are dead wrong..you have some good points in other things
Since there’s pretty much zero chance that NCAA baseball will go back to regional-based conferences, this thread is pretty much hypothetical and nostalgic. I’d like to have Paul Harvey back, too, but he’s dead and so are regional conferences, especially the SWC.
Too true…
Not financially.. Guarantee you that
I know you are right about the finances. I was talking about getting back into the fertile Texas recruiting area. Anyway, I am just dreaming. I know it is not going to happen and the Big 12 does not appear to be interested in any expansion.
Right, it’s all just pointless speculation, but Texas definitely IS a super hot bed of baseball talent that absolutely is sufficient to feed the number of high end programs down there..I mean, just look at the Razorback team, it’s loaded w/ Texas homegrowns. The money thing will always drive the alignments, but when I was younger that’s what was so good about collegiate athletics, money didn’t dictate top tier programs as much, at least not by defining perennial powers the way it does today. Having the same programs year after year be the champion’s club gets monotonous for the broader base of fans, baseball is still a little more Wild West as different clubs make the Omaha eight fairly regularly, but there’s a core that keeps turning up the same—gets kind of ho-hum.
Nonsense.. Post..
I’ve done worse things to get away from a ex-wife!!!
All my ex’s live in Texas🎼
Schlossnagle was interviewed for the head job at Ms State…but, not offered.
It appears, he’s been trying to leave TCU for a couple of years. Is it due to lack of support from the administration?
I was wondering the same thing….even now it doesn’t even seem as tho they even counter offered
They did counter offer for 5 year extension to make him a top 5 paid coach. He has wanted to coach in SEC and was not happy with TCU not adding more to stadium.
He wants out of Fort Worth. Bad divorce, looking for a fresh start. A&M May be a good fit, although Mississippi Stats passed on him. All in all, TCU won’t miss him and was looking for a fresh face as head coach. TCU knew he was leaving.
I’m a TCU fan and agree with most of that, but I can’t co-sign on them ‘looking for a fresh face.’ They’d have probably been pretty chill if he wanted to stay, even if it meant they were going to lose Saarloos (who is not a fresh face and is def the odds-on favorite)
I know he went through a divorce, but how does everyone know it was a “bad” one or “nasty” one like I’ve read through twitter comments? Google his name and I don’t even see a divorce record.. Just curious how everyone is in the know on that.
But I can definitely see wanting a change in scenery if it was bad coupled with his disdain for the admin not putting more $$ into the program enough to make him want to leave.
What has been communicated to me is something like, his behavior led to their mutual friends all siding with the wife, leaving him with a not-as-enjoyable social life? Something like that. Candidly, starting over in a college town feels equally as difficult to navigate as potentially having uncomfortable interactions all over town.
But I went there and know tons of donors, direct employees and indirect connections to the school. No publication wants to put their name on tabloid trash like that, so you have to scour comment sections, which don’t generally pop on a google search.
Schloss was set to be hired at MSU but back out last minute.
Your information is wrong….The interviewed went sideways and both parties went in different directions. State was prepared to offer him the job…but never did.
Curious how you know that. Who gives a shit about the interview of a coach got his team to the CWS 4 year in a row. That is contrary to what had as I heard schloss backed out.
My understanding is that in these kinds of discussions between high profile programs & candidates, initially there are almost never either true (legal) offers or rejections. Instead it is, “If we made an offer of X to your guy, would he accept it?” or “The vibe I’m getting is they’ve decided to go in a different direction..,so your guy might want to withdraw.”
Both sides retain deniability; nobody takes a real hit in the media…frequently leading to arguments exactly like this one – he rejected offer/no he didn’t, we rejected him – which neither party ever
either confirms or denies. Unless you are Schloss’s agent or MSU’s AD, you don’t really know for sure.
But more importantly, B. Allen is absolutely right: Who gives a shit? Nobody can argue that Schloss isn’t one of the very best coaches in the game. 5 CWS trips in 6 years??? That’s CRAZY.
And if MSU pulled back from Schloss in favor of Lemonis or whichever other head coach hire this one was…probably not the best decision.
Yep.
Good riddance!
I think these TCU fans making the nasty comments are going to regret losing Schlos. You are insane if you think he is not a great coach. How many coaches out there can say they got to the CWS 4 consecutive years? Maybe the USC coach back in the day but that is about it. I suspect this issue affected TCU during the regionals. As a Texas Tech fan I am breathing a sigh of relief unless TCU hires that dude at Dallas Baptist.
As TCU fan – those types of comments are probably from bible beaters at odds with his personal life, or just sour grapes from people with personal vendettas towards A&M (i.e. why leave TCU when they’ve dominated them, etc). He was objectively an amazing coach.
TCU will almost certainly promote Saarloos, who could have a decades-long career here. But he probably has an offer from Fullerton too. Our athletics dept is extremely green by most standards, so it is difficult to imagine some stranger superseding what he’s contributed to.
That dude at DBU should not be a stranger by now. He just took his second Regional from TCU. I hope you do not hire him and he goes outside the Big 12.
I think it’s BS that these college baseball writers are allowed to report “insider” info that a coach is leaving a program while the kids are still fighting for their season. Extremely unfair as the kids are certainly reading and hearing this and are surely affected by it. I think the fact that Kendall is an A&M guy impacted the way he reported on this and thought he did so in poor taste.
Um they aren’t fighting for their season. A&m didn’t make the field and tcu didn’t make it out of their regional. So what exactly is so wrong about them reporting the coaching change?
He’s been talking about Schloss to A&M for weeks dummy
Yeah clearly I’m the dumb one here 😂 guns up!!
Sounds to me you are searching for an excuse as to why tcu had such a poor showing in regional.
That’s quite a bit different than WRITING about “a coach leaving a program while the kids are still fighting for their season.”
And who do you think should prohibit publication of such news if a baseball writer intends to publish it while the team is still playing?
I do not know about Kendall reporting that Schloss was in the mix but it was definitely out there and I am sure it got back to the players. I heard about it from someone who was on Childers staff for 4 years. He is in group with several former ATM players. They are pretty much super pissed and since the day it was announced that Childers was out they felt ATM let Childers go in order to hire Tadlock or Schloss. They did not think Tadlock would bite so Schloss was thought to be a forgone conclusion.
Can you cite an article where Kendall did that? If not an apology to Kendal might be in order. I believe when Childers was let go D1 immediately speculated that Tadlock and Schloss would be ATM’s top targets. Actually I see your point because there were some that said that Tech would be distracted by the prospect of Tadlock leaving. If that is what you are talking about that was definitely prior to the regionals.
That’s what I was talking about
I reported this three days after TCU’s season was over (not playing), and I reported this the way I report on every single coaching story….. you’re reaching.
Can’t make everyone happy kendall. Some folks are just salty for the sake if being salty. Yall like always are doing a great job. Are any of you guys making the trip to lubbock this weekend? If I spot you I might have to try and bend your ear for a sec
If you do see Kendall ask him if he is still butt hurt over Notre Dame not getting our regional.
You’ve been talking about him to A&M for weeks.
I’m curious how you know that.
Conspiracy Theory Guy told him..don’tcha know that???
Yeah, somehow I don’t think we’re ever going to learn the source of his “information.”
Plus, wouldn’t it be kind of…um…normal for a baseball writer who covers the college coaching carousel to talk to his sources at A&M after they canned Childress?
Proof???
Ever heard of the US Constitution???… That prickly freedom of the press thing ???…Get a grip..!!!
Apparently there’s a little known exception to the First Amendment that says it’s perfectly OK to abridge the freedoms of speech and press when it comes to sportswriters talking or writing about coaching changes. Cancel Culture!
Your arguement does not really apply to TCU as much as Florida. It was definitely leaked that LSU would go after the Florida coach. Beaten 19 to 1 by a 3 seed, I definitely think something was sour at Florida.
Sorry, just don’t see the argument that a sportswriter shouldn’t report reliable info – or even speculate about – who a school might be interested in hiring to replace a recently fired or retired coach. It’s NOT like he reported that Schloss had secretly ACCEPTED A&M job the day before Frogs lost their regional…so the team quit playing.
If he had and I’d been asked to vet the article before publication, I’d have said there’s no prohibition on publishing, you might consider impact on team but if you don’t publish someone else will…and it’s newsworthy AF that a coach would secretly agree to take another job while his team was still competing for a championship.
Of course, none of that happened in Texas or Florida.
And, TCU could have done what Texas Tech did, head the robbers off at the pass. Tech gave Tadlock a nice lifetime contract (whatever that is) and signed a contract for a new 12.5 million baseball specific performance enhancement center.
Very good point…and/but I don’t really know what a “lifetime contract” is, either…and how does one calculate the buyout on that?
It is a rolling 7 year contract. Essentially after every year, an additional year is automatically tacked on to the end of the contract. With the new contract, at no point would he ever have less than 6 years remaining. Not sure if there is a separate buyout number included in the contract. If it is all guaranteed, 6-7 years would be the max buyout amount depending on when in the year they decided to move in a different direction.
Hey, thanks for the info. I really was curious how that worked.
I agree with you you. D1 had to do it. I live in Fort Worth and everyone I spoke to thought Schloss was going to make a jump, if not to ATM then to somewhere else; however, Kendall did put that out there before the Regionals. The article was May 23 after Childress was let go. I am not saying D1 should not have done it, but they did. Actually they indicated that Tech’s coach was the leading candidate which lead Tech to make Tadlock an offer he could not refuse.
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