Texas A&M fans have more than one reason to be angry right now. On Monday, they lost the third game of the College World Series finals to the Tennessee Volunteers, missing their first NCAA baseball title. Now, they have to endure Jim Schlossnagle leaving for their rival, the Texas Longhorns, less than 24 hours after he promised not to do so.
In the postgame news conference on Monday, Schlossnagle said this when asked about his future at College Station:
“I left my family to be the coach at Texas A&M. I took the job at Texas A&M to never take another job again.”
According to reports on Tuesday, he will be the new coach of the Texas Longhorns, and fans weren't happy. Even Volunteers fans were angry:
"Will never live this down. How could you ever believe a word this guy says again."
Someone thought that he gave himself little room to maneuver:
"There is no way to answer this question. Probably should have just said 'I plan on being here next yr. Next question.'"
It's not like it used to be, Terrence wrote:
"Division 1 College sports has been ruined by the portal and rotating carousel coaching positions. I'd rather watch D3 baseball at this point."
In general, everyone agreed this was a bad look on Schlossnagle.
Where is Jim Schlossnagle going?
ESPN reported on Tuesday night that, according to several sources close to the matter, Jim Schlossnagle was leaving College Station for Austin. The news came within 24 hours of Texas A&M losing the College World Series finals Game 3 to Tennessee 6-5. Schlossnagle has long been rumored to be in the sights of the Longhorns, which was a controversial subject given the rivalry between the schools.
Schlossnagle acknowledged as much a month ago to ESPN:
"That's like nuclear stuff, but there isn't a moment in my day where I think about what Texas is doing. I think if you go look at general society today with social media, everybody does the comparison game. And A&M and Texas have been doing the comparison game for a couple hundred years."
Now, the question is, what will happen to the Texas A&M baseball program? This season, despite the bittersweet ending, had the biggest achievement in program history. Will all the progress be lost? Or will the next coach build upon Jim Schlossnagle's legacy?
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