Jim Schlossnagle mislead the 12th Man with his comments on Monday night after losing the College World Series finals, but the former Texas A&M baseball head coach claimed Wednesday that it wasn’t his intent to do so.
“I didn’t intentionally mislead them. That’s a very fair question for you to ask because that is what I said. In that moment, that’s exactly how I felt,” Schlossnagle proclaimed. “I loved it and dove in with every single ounce of me to help A&M have the very best baseball program that it can possibly have. That investment lasted through the last pitch of the national championship game. It never wavered, not one second, I don’t care what anybody says.
“If I had left Texas A&M for some other school in a different part of the country, the interesting text messages that I got yesterday probably wouldn’t have happened. But I get it… You can’t ask for your fan base to support you and be passionate like the 12th Man always has been, but really was this year! Our crowds were awesome every single game! You can’t ask for that like our staff did and then expect everybody to be OK with a coach leaving for its rival school and I get it.
“All I can say is I have a career too. I have a personal life as well. I have goals and I just simply felt like, no negative at A&M, just the positives of the alignment and frankly my relationship with Chris. I knew there wasn’t anybody at Texas A&M that I couldn’t trust, I just know that I can trust Chris, I just know that. As hard as that decision was, I could not walk away from it.”
Schlossnagle brought his entire coaching staff with him to Austin: Nolan Cain, Michael Earley and Max Weiner.
Here’s the question everyone from Aggieland wanted to hear, asked by @olinbuchanan from @TexAgs.
Q: What changed and what would you say to those Texas A&M people that supported you that feels like you intentionally misled them?
Jim Schlossnagle: I didn’t mislead them.… pic.twitter.com/hyHLETvRGo
— Parker Rehm (@parker_rehm) June 26, 2024
One of the final questions that Schlossnagle answered was in regard to the backlash of his abrupt departure and how it will effect recruiting.
“Don’t listen to what I say. Judge me by my actions over the course of time. Anybody can say one thing and do another,” Schlossnagle proclaimed. “I do feel like, not just me, but our staff has a proven track record of doing things the right way. Many people, especially on the A&M side, will say ‘this wasn’t done the right way.’ I just don’t know any other way that it could have been done.
“It’s not like we can sit around and wait for a week. That wouldn’t have been fair to Texas A&M or the University of Texas. So it is what it is in today’s college sports. I love those players, they’ll get emotional and that’s OK for them to express their emotion.”
Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Shaun on Twitter: @Shaun_Holkko.