Why Texas A&M baseball fans still consider Jim Schlossnagle public enemy number one in Aggieland

The emotions towards Jim Schlossnagle among Texas A&M baseball fans shifted drastically and rapidly towards the end of June of last year. A man who had, up until that point, been held in high regard in College Station thanks to his work with an A&M baseball program that was failing to reach its potential, was suddenly public enemy number one in Aggieland.

It would be easy enough to point towards the mere fact that Schloss left for the Aggies' chief rival in Texas as a reason for why this shift occurred. That in itself would certainly curry a fair amount of animosity towards the man.

But to point only to that would miss the context of exactly what happened, and therefore miss the reason why the vitriol now runs so deep towards Schloss in College Station. As the Aggies gear up to face their former coach for the first time, here's a reminder on what exactly went down with Schlossnagle's departure.

Why Texas A&M baseball fans still have so much anger towards Jim Schlossnagle

The 2024 baseball season was a renaissance for the Aggies. They went undefeated out of conference, and despite a slump towards the end of the regular season, they absolutely went on a tear once the postseason started.

The Aggies didn't lose a single postseason game until they made it to the College World Series final. They swept their regional and super regional and took care of business in Omaha expeditiously.

However, underlying this great run was constant chatter from the outside. A dissatisfied Longhorn fanbase was waiting to fire David Pierce, and many fans were making overtures towards the fact that Schloss would be the top target for the Longhorns.

This made sense, on one level. Schlossnagle and Texas AD Chris Del Conte were close when both worked at TCU; that connection was a big reason that Longhorn fans considered the Aggie coach a primary target.

Given the Longhorns' penchant for attempting to spoil big moments for A&M, it was no surprise when David Pierce's firing was announced on June 24, 2024: the day of the rubber match between Tennessee and A&M that would decide the national title.

As we all know, the Aggies came out on the wrong side of that one. It was an emotional time for all Aggie fans; the dream of a national title that seemed so close— so eminently achievable— just days before was suddenly dead in the water.

At this same time, the chatter of Texas making a run at Schlossnagle, especially given the announcement of Pierce's firing that morning, was growing ever louder. In light of that, Richard Zane of Texags, who talked regularly with Schlossnagle on Texags Radio, asked the then-Aggie coach about that chatter without naming specific names. Schloss's response was fiery:

As the above tweet says, though, the man left for Texas less than a day after this interaction. That eventuality casts a whole new light on this answer.

This means several things. It beggars belief that Schlossnagle really felt this strongly about staying at A&M but was convinced in fewer than 24 hours to take the job at Texas; in reality, it should be obvious that this is something that was in the works for far longer than that.

It can be reasonably inferred, then, that the topic of taking the Texas job was broached by Schlossnagle in conversations with Del Conte while the Aggies were still making their postseason run. Given how tantalizingly close the Ags got before losing their final two games, this meant that A&M fans were apt to wonder how much those conversations may have affected the coach and team's focus in those final games.

Now, I don't really buy into the idea that the Aggies lost the College World Series because Schloss was checked out. But the timing here looks really bad for him nonetheless.

There were also intimations made by Schlossnagle after taking the job at Texas that the Aggies didn't do their part to keep him, but those were slapped down by the Aggie athletic department.

In short, it's more than just the fact that the man left A&M for Texas. It's that he clearly made plans to leave while a historic postseason run was underway for A&M, got out of dodge less than 24 hours after vehemently denying he was leaving, and casting aspersions on the way out.

This weekend's series is the first time this team will face Schloss as the coach of Texas. With the above context, it shouldn't be hard to see why this one may be more emotional than normal.