Texas A&M baseball coaching rumor: Another name crossed off, A&M down to 3 candidates
![Head coach Skip Johnson watches as the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) baseball team plays Rider at L. Dale Mitchell Park on Feb. 24, 2023 in Norman, Okla. [Steve Sisney/For The Oklahoman]
Ou Practice](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_3648,h_2052,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2F273%2F01j1jm45mywex0pn7qxk.jpg "Head coach Skip Johnson watches as the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) baseball team plays Rider at L. Dale Mitchell Park on Feb. 24, 2023 in Norman, Okla. [Steve Sisney/For The Oklahoman]
Ou Practice")
Texas A&M baseball coaching rumors: Skip Johnson of OU eliminated from list as Aggies begin to focus on three names
This Texas A&M baseball coaching search is moving along at an extremely brisk pace. After yesterday's report that the Aggies have moved on from DBU's Dan Heefner and UVA's Brian O'Conner, we have some more movement on the Aggie coaching hot board.
Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball is reporting that OU's Skip Johnson, though he interviewed for the position, is not the Aggies' guy. Rather, Johnson will stay in Norman as the Aggies continue to focus their search on three candidates—ones that he did not name.
SCOOP: Texas A&M is narrowing down its candidates, and @OU_Baseball head coach Skip Johnson will stay put in Norman as he is expected to sign a new deal with the #Sooners sometime today. Skip was most definitely in the mix, but #Aggies appear to be zeroing in on three guys.
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) June 29, 2024
However, if we take a look at a tweet of his from yesterday, there were three names he listed: Johnson, Tom Walter of Wake Forest, and former Aggie hitting coach Michael Earley, who is at least nominally part of Schloss's Texas staff at the moment. Rogers cryptically tagged this tweet by saying "there are more as well."
Some nuggets on the @AggieBaseball search:
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) June 28, 2024
* Some names who have interviewed in the last 24 hours, per sources: OU's Skip Johnson, Wake's Tom Walter, Michael Earley. There are more as well.
* Skip Johnson met with Joe Castiglione earlier today in his annual contract meeting.
In the last few minutes, Billy Liucci has reported that Wake's Tom Walter is also out of the picture in the coaching search. That leaves only Michael Earley from this list, but Liucci has also reported that there are a few candidates who have not yet been named who are real players here. Earley is a favorite among the players on campus, and his return would all but ensure that the Aggies can retain their players currently in the portal.
One of these names that has been popping up time and time again among Aggie fans on Twitter and message boards is that of Alabama coach Rob Vaughn. Vaughn has done yeoman's work down in Tuscaloosa after a scandal with the previous Tide coach who was betting on games. Vaughn has made the Tide a relevant factor in the SEC, even though Alabama's support dedicated to baseball is not nearly as high as what they've given to football and basketball.
Some Aggie fans are even beginning to dream of bringing on Vaughn with Earley coming over as an assistant or associate head coach. That sounds too good to be true—but I certainly think such a move is possible. The donors are motivated for a big move here, and all the better if it cripples Schloss's Longhorn staff.
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