Baylor coach hopes TCU's Jim Schlossnagle stays in the Big 12
The news that TCU baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle might be considering leaving for Mississippi State reverberated through the college baseball world on Sunday afternoon.
It not only took fans in Fort Worth by surprise and excited Bulldogs fans in Starkville, Miss., it startled some coaches as well.
Third-year Baylor coach Steve Rodriguez, whose Bears won a wild, 11-inning Big 12 tournament championship over TCU on Sunday in Oklahoma City, doesn't want to see Schlossnagle leave the league.
"I'm not going to comment on anything with regards to him going anywhere, because that's his life and that's what he does," Rodriguez told the Waco Tribune-Herald's Brice Cherry. "But I want him to stay in our conference. I think he's great for our conference, I think he's a great man. He's done a phenomenal job, especially at a private school."
Schlossnagle had led the Frogs to five College World Series, including the past four. He has been at TCU since July 2003 and has won a school-record 645 games.
"If leaving is something he chooses for his future and his family, by all means," Rodriguez said. "But being in the Big 12 and being able to go to the World Series four straight times and being able to get first-rounders to come to school, he has set a really impressive bar in the Big 12 and, to be honest, college baseball."
Rodriguez, who was the head coach at Pepperdine when it lost to TCU in three games in the 2014 Fort Worth Super Regional, said Schlossnagle has shown a unique ability to attract top high school recruits and convince them to put off their professional careers.
"The statistics just prove that when you go to college, you have a better chance of getting to the big leagues," he said. "He does a phenomenal job of getting his kids to decide to go to school. Not to mention, just letting them grow up and become men."
This story was originally published May 28, 2018 at 1:36 AM with the headline "Baylor coach hopes TCU's Jim Schlossnagle stays in the Big 12."