COLLEGE SPORTS
Schlossnagle named Texas baseball coach
Jim Schlossnagle, one of the nation's premier baseball coaches who took programs at Texas A&M and TCU to historic heights over the last 21 years, has been named head coach at The University of Texas, UT Vice President and Lois and Richard Folger Athletics Director Chris Del Conte announced on Tuesday. A 23-year head coaching veteran who was twice named National Coach of the Year and led his team to the College World Series seven times, he becomes just the sixth Longhorn head baseball coach since 1911 (with the exception of the war years of 1943-45 when assistant football coach Blair Cherry was at the helm). He is the 14th head coach in 123 years of Texas Baseball.
During his combined 21-year tenure as head coach at TCU (2004-21) and Texas A&M (2022-24), Schlossnagle has led his teams to the CWS in six of the last 10 seasons. That includes trips to Omaha in two of the last three seasons with the Aggies, including earning A&M's first-ever spot in the championship series this year. His six CWS appearances in the last 10 seasons are tied for the most of any coach (Kevin O'Sullivan, Florida), while his 50 (50-22/.694) NCAA Tournament wins during that stretch are the best of any coach. The programs he has built make it even more impressive as his six wins in two CWS appearances at Texas A&M tripled the Aggies' all-time total of two CWS victories in the history of the program. Meanwhile at TCU, four of the Horned Frogs' six CWS appearances came under Schlossnagle, and he led them to the final four at the CWS three times (2010, 2016 and 2017), the furthest that program has ever advanced. All totaled, his squads have been to the CWS seven times (all in the last 14 years), at least the final four on five occasions, and in 23 years as a head coach, his teams have earned NCAA Tournament bids 20 times. The resurgences of his programs all began in his first head coaching job at UNLV, where he led a struggling Rebels program to a Mountain West Conference Championship (regular season & tourney) and back to the NCAA Tournament in just his second year in 2003.
June 25, 2024