Jim Schlossnagle’s transfer from Texas A&M to Texas caught a minimum of some individuals within the broader school baseball world without warning, with the coach of the reigning nationwide runner-up leaving for his program’s chief in-state rival, a faculty it is going to quickly be in the identical convention as for the primary time in additional than a decade.
That group of individuals caught off guard by Schlossnagle’s determination apparently contains a few of his personal gamers.
On Tuesday at 1:42 p.m. CT, about 16 hours after his group misplaced to Tennessee 6-5 within the third and ultimate recreation of the 2024 Faculty World Collection championship, Texas A&M senior infielder Ryan Targac took to X, the social media platform previously generally known as Twitter, to publish a message expressing his gratitude for the season on which the Aggies had simply embarked.
“I’ve been sitting on this for some time, however I can’t categorical my gratitude sufficient to Texas A&M College and the twelfth Man,” Targac wrote. “It has been one of the best 4 years of my life and that might not have been attainable with out the infinite help. Perpetually grateful! Thanks and Gig’em!”
REQUIRED READING:Texas baseball hires Jim Schlossnagle of Texas A&M as coach, changing David Pierce
Inside about three hours of Targac’s message being posted, information leaked about Schlossnagle’s departure to Texas, prompting one respondent to notice that Targac made no particular point out of his group’s coach and, due to that, “it’s all making sense.”
From there, Targac revealed he solely received a lot of a heads-up himself.
“I came upon on twitter most likely two hours after I posted this,” he wrote in response. “I had no clue.”
Schlossnagle’s transfer to Texas wrapped up what seemed to be a whirlwind of a courtship, with the official announcement of his hiring coming fewer than 24 hours after the ultimate out of the 2024 Faculty World Collection and fewer than two full days after it was revealed that the Longhorns had parted methods with coach David Pierce.
Following Pierce’s firing, Schlossnagle’s identify was instantly linked to the emptiness resulting from Texas’ lengthy, storied historical past — with six nationwide championships, to Texas A&M’s zero — and his current relationship with Longhorns athletic director Chris Del Conte, who he labored below for 13 years at TCU.
As hypothesis swirled, Schlossnagle was requested about his future at Texas A&M following the Aggies’ season-ending loss to Tennessee Monday night time, with Schlossnagle chiding the reporter who requested the query and calling him “fairly egocentric.”
REQUIRED READING:Hiring away Jim Schlossnagle was the primary blow on this Texas-Texas A&M SEC struggle | Golden
“I left my household to be the coach at Texas A&M,” Schlossnagle mentioned. “I took the job at Texas A&M to by no means take one other job once more. And that hasn’t modified in my thoughts. That is unfair to speak about one thing like that. That may be such as you asking [Texas A&M outfielder Braden] Montgomery if he will signal within the draft. However I perceive you have to ask the query. However I gave up a giant a part of my life to return take this job. And I poured each ounce of my soul on this job and I gave this job each ounce I may presumably give it. Write that.”
Schlossnagle went 135-62 in his three seasons with the Aggies, together with a 53-15 mark in 2024. In two of these three seasons, Texas A&M made the Faculty World Collection. This yr’s championship collection look was the primary in program historical past.
He arrives in Austin lower than every week earlier than the Longhorns formally be part of the Aggies within the SEC. Although the 2 packages, in contrast to among the colleges’ different groups, have competed towards one another pretty persistently within the years since Texas A&M’s exit from the Large 12 to the SEC in 2012, Texas and Texas A&M have been designated as everlasting rivals on the schedule of the soon-to-be 16-team convention.