How New Texas Baseball Coach Jim Schlossnagle Plans to Mold Longhorns Into Title Contender

Texas coach Jim Schlossnagle hopes to bring his culture and spirit to the Longhorn faithful and take the program back to the top, honoring former players and his former team in the process.

University of Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle speaks at his introductory news conference at the Frank Denius Family University Hall of Fame Wednesday June 26, 2024. / Jay Janner/American-Statesman / USA

The Texas Longhorns shocked the college baseball world this past week, snagging Texas A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle away from College Station after a College World Series runner-up run.

Schlossnagle talked to the press in Austin for the first time Wednesday morning, with many acknowledgments and apologies directed towards his past team and their fans.

“Probably most importantly, I want to thank Texas A&M,” Schlossnagle said. “I couldn't be more thankful and humbled by the support that I got there, that we got there, from some awesome players, staff and administration.”

Schlossnagle spent no time talking about the future of Texas baseball, and what needs to happen to bring them back to national championship contenders.

“I'm a big culture guy,” Schlossnagle said, echoing words that are notably spoken by Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian. “I believe that the way you do anything is how you do everything, and our culture at the University of Texas in the baseball program will simply be this:

1. Toughness, the toughness to embrace success and see failure as an opportunity.

2. Energy, We’re going to give elite effort. Excellence means the best version of yourself. My job is to help everybody within the program become the best version of themselves, especially the players.

3. I want to be held accountable. We're going to be about accountability. I'm going to challenge our players to do what they say they're going to do, do what they say they're committed to do.

4. The last thing is to be selfless. I think the greatest quality somebody can have is humility because you can't learn what you think you already know. That's the only way you can be coached. That'll be our culture, our four values. Those aren't words on a wall. That's not stuff we're going to put on a t-shirt and talk about it in the first meeting. That is how we will live. That is how I want to be held accountable, and that's how I will hold everybody else accountable.”

Schlossnagle plans to bring a culture reset to the program, something Sarkisian did similarly in 2021 with the football team. In three years with Texas A&M, Schlossnagle went 135-62, nearly winning a national championship and taking the team to Omaha in his first year as a head coach.

To say expectations are lofty is an understatement for the new coach, especially with replacing David Pierce, who parted ways with the team after eight seasons and three CWS appearances.

University of Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle speaks at his introductory news conference at the Frank Denius Family University Hall of Fame Wednesday June 26, 2024. / Jay Janner/American-Statesman / USA

One thing that stood out in the press conference was the mindset the new coach laid out immediately, knowing that the school he represented, and the team he will coach, is not HIS program.

“To the former players at the University of Texas. This is your program.,” Schlossnagle said. “The program belongs to you. You are always welcome.”

Schlossnagle added that his new job is to steward the Texas baseball program, adding an anecdote of past head coach Augie Garrido, who told him that if Schlossnagle ever came to Texas, it would not be his program. Schlossnagle said his program was at Elon, his alma mater, and that his role is not to make it his but to bring it to the next level.

“My job is to steward this program and oversee this program and continue to grow this program to a championship level on a daily basis,” Schlossnagle said. “So to the current, the future players, that's what we'll be doing.”