I spent a few days attending “Camp Brisket” on the campus of Texas A&M a few weeks ago. The event happened to fall on the same day that Texas was playing Ohio State in the semifinal. So it was that I was stuck in College Station trying to watch the Texas Longhorns.
The next morning, as the camp got going again, one of the Aggies running the event made a comment that he didn’t know which team Jim Schlossnagle would have been cheering for but he was happy Ohio State won.
Make no mistake, Aggie fans are still very bitter that Chris Del Conte was able to stalk A&M’s baseball coach and whisk him away to Austin within hours of the Aggies playing for a College World Series title.
It's hard to blame them. Schlossnagle is one of the best coaches in college baseball and he made that program relevant. But Texas has ALWAYS been relevant. So when Del Conte came calling, it couldn't have been all that hard of a decision to pack his bags and move from College Station to Austin.
And so Schloss has now become just the 14th head coach in Texas baseball history. And, the winning tradition at the University of Texas will not be entrusted to the timid or the weak.
“I sit in an office that Coach Disch, Coach Faulk, Coach Gus, and Augie, their pictures are on a wall and they stare at me every single day,” Schlossnagle said during a press conference prior to the first practice of the season last week. “But I’m not afraid that of that. As long as you have high support, I’m totally ok with the high expectations.”
The expectations at Texas are pretty simple. Go to Omaha every year. Texas fans will expect him to come home with a trophy every now and then, but the expectation is to at least make it to Omaha and win a couple of games.
Schlossnagle is relying on a core group of returning players to help him live up to those expectations.
“The makeup of the older players is awesome,” said Schlossnagle. “Rylan Galvan, Schuessler, Max Belyeu, Dre Duplantier, Jalin Flores, there’s more but these guys are super hungry. Whenever they leave Texas, they want to leave it - whether it be graduation or the draft - they want to leave it on a high note. They understand what the standard is.”
Of course, when he talks about the standard, he’s not just talking about wins, he’s also talking about the standards he expects from his players every day.
“You are playing for a national title, you’re playing for it every day by the decisions you make,” Schlossnagle said. “Your decisions and choices are going to dictate your behavior and your behavior is more than likely going to dictate the results. You can’t control the results but you can control your behavior. That’s one thing I’m really confident in with this group.”
That sounds an awful lot like Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian when he’s talking about culture.
And if Sark were suddenly the baseball coach, then he would be thrilled to hear the players talking to the press and sounding like their coaches because that means they are buying into the culture he’s trying to build.
“If I can just control the things that I can control – being a good teammate, being a good leader – everything else will just take care of itself,” starting right fielder Max Belyeu told the press last week.
Belyeu and the others have bought in so much, they actually remind Schlossnagle of another group of players he inherited at his last stop.
“Very similar to my first team at A&M,” Schlossnagle said. “Very, very similar. Some kids that hadn’t had a great year the year before. But kind of that new coach honeymoon period, super hungry and that team turned out to have a pretty solid year so I’m praying for that.”
Schloss should be praying for that kind of season. His first year in College Station, A&M went 44-20 with a 19-11 conference record and made a trip to the College World Series. In Omaha, the Aggies lost to OU, then knocked Texas out of the tournament with a 10-2 win in the losers bracket, beat Notre Dame and then lost to OU again in the semifinals. That was actually the most College World Series wins the program had ever had in one season.
But culture is a two way street and while Schloss is relying on those older players to implement his culture, they’re making sure that he and the new guys all know about Texas’ culture.
“We know the tradition that this place has so that’s just what we preach to the new guys and even to the coaches,” said Kimble Schuessler. “It’s like, ‘hey, everyone wants to be wearing this (grabs his Longhorn logo shirt) and it’s really special to get to be wearing it so we take a lot of responsibility in that.”
TWEETS OF INTEREST
Schlossnagle certainly left A&M baseball in much better shape than when he arrived. The Aggies are number one in Baseball America's top 25 poll out today with Texas checking in at 14.
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The grind for a national championship in football is now underway. Let the Arch Manning era begin!
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Defensive Tackle is one of the biggest positions of need that still needs to be addressed in the transfer portal. Frankly, the run of DT's going from Texas to the NFL has been phenomenal. But there are big shoes to fill this year.
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Speaking of A&M, Arch Manning and the boys all seemed to love watching Texas basketball finish off the Aggies on the court.
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You think Xavier Worthy wasn't motivated for the AFC Championship game after the Bills traded their pick to the Chiefs (who then drafted Worthy in the first round)?
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Bob Bowman has seen a lot in his career. He's been to multiple Olympics coaching Michael Phelps. He won an NCAA national title at Arizona State last year. But he's never seen the most beautiful steer in the world show up to a swim meet.
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Even Jerry can't explain the Schottenheimer hire.
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I love that Texans are making sure the world understands that grammar matters.
