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The Texas A&M baseball team has reportedly hired its next head coach. After seeing former leader Jim Schlossnagle bolt for rival Texas less than 24 hours after season’s end, one of his assistants will now fill the role.
Michael Earley, who was expected to follow Schlossnagle to Austin, appears to be staying put. Billy Liucci of TexAgs broke the news early Sunday.
Aggie brass meeting with Michael Earley as we speak, set to hire the former assistant as next A&M head coach.
A wildly popular move within the program and a guy who won Trev Alberts over in a big way during interview process.
-Billy Liucci / X: @billyliucci
The move closes a search that started almost immediately after the Aggies fell to Tennessee in the national championship series. Despite leading the program to the most successful season in its history, Schlossnagle opted to bail for Texas rather than continue building on success in College Station.
The news sent shockwaves throughout the college baseball world due to the head coach’s denial of interest in the Longhorn program in his season-ending press conference.
Schlossnagle’s decision impacted the Aggies on a number of different fronts.
Obviously, the head coaching role was suddenly open, but he’d also planned to take each of his assistants on staff with him – and likely a few players, too.
In an attempt to save the recruiting class and current roster, Texas A&M responded by swiping one of Schlossnagle’s right-hand men.
Michael Earley will be Texas A&M’s next baseball coach.
A hitting coach with the Aggies last season, he helped lead one of the nation’s top offenses. Now, he’ll continue building on the foundation laid by his former boss.
While he did receive a strong backing from Texas A&M players amid that coaching search, his lack of head coaching experience does have some hesitant to crown him a home run hire.
Interesting move here for the Aggies. Michael Earley is really good, but this is most certainly a gamble for A&M. Will keep the roster together, but staff hires will be crucial to say the least.
-Kendall Rogers / X: @KendallRogers
Billy Liucci wrote that Earley was able to win AD Trev Alberts over in the interview process which helped ease any resume concerns. Interestingly enough, it didn’t seem Alberts was sad to see Earley’s predecessor leave.
Jim Schlossnagle was asked about his discussions with Texas A&M brass prior to his leaving for the Texas baseball program. Here’s what he had to say in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
Trev [Alberts] came to me the day before the regional to have a conversation. He asked me if I was frustrated. I told him that I had some frustration with how slow the ballpark process was going and that it was tough to operate without a sport administrator, but I was committed to working through it. He then made a comment to me — kind of comparing his situation of leaving his alma mater, Nebraska. He said to me, ‘You know, Jim, if you ever don’t feel like this is the place for you, that’s OK, and it’s OK to move on.’ I was a little taken aback by that, and that was the moment that I began to think that maybe this wasn’t going to work out. No one ever contacted me or my agent about a new contract for our staff, so I just decided to focus on getting our team to Omaha and winning.
Schlossnagle claims that Alberts was open to – and maybe even encouraging of – a change at the helm. This coming just as the team was set to start the postseason.
Was Trev Alberts to blame? Who knows. Schlossnagle’s relationship with Texas AD Chris Del Conte might’ve been too much to overcome either way.
But it does seem that Alberts’ comments made the decision easier.