Texas’ Jim Schlossnagle’s return to Texas A&M will be brilliant, pricey, theater
He could only laugh, because there is no better alternative.
Having coached at Texas A&M for three seasons, Jim Schlossnagle is well versed in Aggie culture, so he can only chuckle at the thought of what is coming this weekend in College Station. Now that his primary color is burnt orange he knows he will hear an array of sentences and colorful words that a drunk truck driver would find offensive.
“One of my favorite things about coaching at Texas A&M was the 12th Man. They are some of the most passionate, loyal and consistent people I’ve ever been around,” he said in a phone interview with the Star-Telegram. “I fully expect them to be the same this weekend for their team.”
Seven p.m. on Friday in College Station will be one of the most anticipated college baseball series in recent memory when No. 2 Texas plays at No. 18 Texas A&M in the first of a three-game series at Blue Bell Park. Schlossnagle may want to wear ear buds, with cotton, covered in headphones and a hoodie when he steps on the field that he left in 2024.
A good ticket for this game is going for more than $4,700 on StubHub; the “get in” price for an actual seat is $209.
This will be the first time the Texas baseball coach will appear at Texas A&M since he left the school for Austin on June 25, 2024 — the day after the Aggies lost in the decisive game of the College World Series.
This is one of those times in life when you swallow your breath, put your head down, and just get through it.
“I don’t hold any ill will about Texas A&M at all, and I’ve never said anything negative about them. I never will,” he said. “I still talk to several people over there. Some of the players. Some of the people I met there I consider lifelong friends.
“This is still Texas A&M and Texas, and I understand all of the dynamics.”
A dynamic that his exit only added a layer to a cake that is already 853,031 feet high.
Texas and Texas A&M baseball have flipped
The Aggies led Game 2 of the 2024 College World Series against Tennessee 1-0 entering the top of the seventh inning, but since that time, the program hasn’t been the same.
They needed to win that game to claim their first national title in baseball, and first major sports national title since the football program won championships in the 1930s. The Aggies lost Game 2, and the decisive Game 3. The next day, they lost their coach, too.
If you were an Aggie, still hurts. In only three years under Schloss, Texas A&M had jumped Texas in baseball. To come so close to that national title, and then for your coach to flee to your despised rival had no parallel in pain. It created national attention, and it was humiliating.
A&M hasn’t done much to make Schloss’ exit hurt less.
In 2025, under first-year coach Michael Earley, the Aggies finished 30-26, and 11-19 in the SEC. It was the second time in 18 years the team did not make the NCAA Tournament.
The Longhorns finished 44-14, won the SEC, and were the No. 2 national seed in the NCAA Tournament. They were upset in the opening round in Austin when they were eliminated by UTSA.
This season, the Longhorns are ranked second in the nation, while Earley’s program has rebounded; the team is 25-6, and on pace to return to the NCAA Tournament.
In college baseball, Texas is again one of the top destinations in America, and Schlossnagle is unleashing the full power of Bevo’s possibilities.
“We are on the road to doing that, from a recruiting standpoint,” he said. “We were behind the 8-ball a little bit when we took over, the same when I got to A&M. It was a lot of work to do in a short amount of time. We still have to be able to maximize it in recruiting, and for here that means we have to get those kids on campus and show them what we’re about.”
Texas A&M will need to win to move on
The first time Schloss faced A&M as the coach of Texas, the Longhorns swept A&M in a three-game series in 2025, in Austin. All of the wins were by one run. A sweep this weekend in College Station would be out of a Russian novel.
For the players and coaches these days, exits are the business. Everyone leaves now. For playing time. For a different opportunity. For money.
However numb fans are to the business of seemingly every level of sport, including third-grade kickball, seeing Schloss in a Texas uniform at Blue Bell Park is not going to go over well.
The Aggies wanted him to want them, and when he didn’t, it was the worst kind of rejection. He didn’t go pro. He was an Aggie who went to Texas.
“College Station was great. It was a different style of living, and I enjoyed the college-town aspect to it. I bought a farm outside of College Station, and I enjoyed that,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed every place I’ve lived. Fort Worth was incredible when I was at TCU [from 2004 to ‘21], and I am really enjoying Austin, too.”
There is nothing he can say about A&M, or College Station, that will make this palatable for the Aggies. It hurts.
When he steps on the field at Blue Bell Park on Friday night, he knows the power of the 12th Man will let him know about it.
This story was originally published April 8, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Texas’ Jim Schlossnagle’s return to Texas A&M will be brilliant, pricey, theater."
