Texas A&M was one win away from winning the 2024 Men’s College World Series heading into Monday. By Wednesday, the Aggies didn’t have a head coach after Jim Schlossnagle jumped to cross-state rival Texas.
The obvious question now is — who is the right man to replace him? D1 Baseball’s Kendall Rogers identified three candidates for the job. All three could prove difficult to sway.
“Brian O’Connor of Virginia would be one that would certainly be in the mix,” Rogers said. “You know he’s a guy that has been a Virginia lifer, was at Notre Dame and has been to Omaha multiple times. won a national championship. What is really interesting thing about O’Connor — and I had somebody reach out to me on Twitter go ‘Brian O’Connor — there’s no shot he leaves.’ Never say never. Because like I said with Jim and Texas. Never say never. Number two is the ACC is a different animal than the SEC right now. There’s dissension within the ACC.
“So I do think some of the ACC coaches could be could have a little bit different outlook on things and maybe that’s a new coach. And the other thing that’s interesting about O’Connor is yeah, he just signed a new 10-year deal. But guess what, from what I understand from people in Charlottesville, his buyout has actually gone down. So yeah, he has a bigger deal but he has a lesser buyout.”
O’Connor has been at Virginia since 2004 and with seven trips to Omaha and a national title under his belt — there aren’t many more successful choices elsewhere in college baseball.
Of course, if O’Connor doesn’t work out, backup plans are needed. And an all-too familiar name to Texas A&M fans should be the Aggies’ first phone call, according to Rogers.
“He’s not leaving, but you’ve got to call Tony Vitello, he’s got Aggies in his family,” Rogers continued. “You’ve got to at least call and be like, ‘Hey, any interest?’ From there, the other people I would at least take a gander at would be Kevin O’Sullivan. He’s made it abundantly clear that Florida needs some help on NIL fronts. Like, he made it very clear. He’s a guy that if he went to A&M, he would have a lot of NIL money from what I’m hearing — a lot of money.
“So I think there are coaches out there at an elite level that I think would have a pretty decent shot with.”
While Vitello is a stretch, O’Sullivan is coming off two-straight runs to the College World Series with the Florida Gators and also has a championship under his belt back in 2017.
If one thing is for sure, Texas A&M is looking at the very top of college baseball’s coaching industry for Jim Schlossnagle’s replacement. According to Rogers, however, the Aggies aren’t expected to have to wait to find out for much longer.
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