Following the outrage at his decision to leave Texas A&M for the head coaching job at Texas, Jim Schlossnagle has begun to explain why he made his decision. And it was a multi-faceted calculus for the head coach.
In an exclusive interview with Stefan Stevenson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Schlossnagle shared that instability in the athletic department, potential delays to construction on a new baseball stadium and the firing of head football coach Jimbo Fisher played into his decision to leave.
“I would say that with everything that was going on within the department financially, the agreement we made to begin construction on the ballpark in June of 2024 began to slow down, and that was disappointing since I had recruited a coaching staff and recruits thinking we would be in a new ballpark by 2025 or 2026,” Schlossnagle said. “Then we had the football coaching change [with Jimbo Fisher’s firing and subsequent near $80 million buyout].”
Schlossnagle continued, explaining how the fallout of Fisher’s ouster played a role in new athletic director Trev Alberts coming over from Nebraska.
“That eventually led to a new athletic director,” Schlossnagle said, “which always makes any coach wonder what direction things are going. In late April, they laid off my sport administrator Chris Park, during the season when we were ranked No. 1 in the country. That created a vacuum of leadership for our program just on a daily basis. The sport administrator for a program plays a big role in our daily operation.”
Schlossnagle went on to detail some interactions with Alberts that he found troubling, along with the lack of outreach about contract extensions.
As Schlossnagle put it, he set his focus on winning as much as possible with his loaded 2024 Aggies squad and trying to make it to Omaha for the Men’s College World Series.
“Trev came to me the day before the regional to have a conversation,” Schlossnagle said. “He asked me if I was frustrated. I told him that I had some frustration with how slow the ballpark process was going and that it was tough to operate without a sport administrator, but I was committed to working through it. He then made a comment to me — kind of comparing his situation of leaving his alma mater, Nebraska. He said to me, ‘You know, Jim, if you ever don’t feel like this is the place for you, that’s OK, and it’s OK to move on.’ I was a little taken aback by that, and that was the moment that I began to think that maybe this wasn’t going to work out. No one ever contacted me or my agent about a new contract for our staff, so I just decided to focus on getting our team to Omaha and winning.”
Schlossnagle also expressed skepticism about how effectively Texas A&M could muster the $85 million in funding to build the new ballpark without taking on debt, something that Alberts apparently told Schlossnagle was a requirement for the project.
“Trev was very nice and supportive,” Schlossnagle said. “I think he will do really good things at A&M. He came to visit with me a few days after being hired and said that baseball was important at Texas A&M, and he knew the stadium was a priority for me and the program and that he wanted to keep that moving forward. He told me that we’d have to build it without taking on any more debt. I understood that, but also knew that raising $85 million would be challenging given all the things that happened in the past year financially. I have no doubt that A&M is committed to baseball and will eventually do something great, though.”
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