Jim Schlossnagle still being dragged in the media despite Texas’s image rehab efforts

Despite PR efforts from Texas, Jim Schlossnagle is still being condemned in national media

After what was supposed to be a surreptitious exit to a rival school became botched due to the man’s intemperate and incondite answer to a press conference question, new Texas coach Jim Schlossnagle is having his feet held to the fire in the national media. 

The Aggie faithful were obviously less-than-pleased with these happenings, but the wide attention this salacious story has gotten has made the man the object of some extremely unfriendly evaluations more widely, to put it mildly. In other words, there are a lot of people with previously unformed opinions on Jim Schlossnagle who now consider him a scumbag.

It’s interesting to consider how things might have gone differently had Richard Zane not asked that question, or had Schloss answered things differently. For example, I really doubt that Schloss is the subject of an entire First Take segment if that press conference moment doesn’t happen.

In the face of this, Texas has undergone a blatantly obvious PR campaign to try and smooth things over. It may be going over better if it weren’t so obvious what they were trying to do!

This media cycle will pass, of course, and people will move on to other things. At that point, Schloss will still be the coach of Texas—they’ll have what they were ultimately driving for. However, the effect this kind of thing is having on portal and recruiting efforts is not insignificant. 

Public perception is huge in those areas (just ask Jimbo Fisher!). If Schloss is slowed, even for this first little bit while the Aggies are hiring their new coach, then that potentially throws a huge wrench in his plan to raid the A&M roster.