Lessons from Schlossnagle’s Texas A&M exit to Texas are brutal

1. They will all leave. All of them. Coaches and players are effectively on one-year contracts, so plan accordingly.

2. The spirit of DeLoss Dodds has infiltrated the body of Chris Del Conte.

The last week of June of 2024 will long be remembered as a “high point” in the love affair between the University of Texas and Texas A&M; when Bevo nabbed the Reveille’s baseball coach, and his entire staff, less than 24 hours after the team barely lost the final game of the College World Series.

In the ugly history of coaching exits, Jim Schlossnagle will never live down his final press conference as the head baseball coach at Texas A&M. This is first ballot hall of famer stuff, and there is no way to defend it.

Whomever was talking to Schloss’ from A&M’s staff before that post-game press conference had to tell him The Question was coming, and to prepare the right answer. Maybe they tried, and in his emotion and anger of losing the title game he lost it.

There was nothing A&M could have done to prevent losing its baseball coach. He wanted Texas. Texas wanted him. Deal done. Chances are 90 percent this was done a few weeks ago.

Both the size and scale of the Texas A&M baseball program fit Schlossnagle, and what he wanted. Not sure College Station ever did.

“There are a lot of decisions in life when you don't get to choose the timing,” Schlossnagle told the media at his introductory press conference on Wednesday morning in Austin. He also made a point to apologize to the reporter who asked him The Question from the press conference in Omaha that went viral.

Big time college sports is a paranoid, slimy business and the person you love today will leave you tomorrow for a “better opportunity.” These are the “rules,” and if you don’t like them, don’t watch, or play. (You will).

The Aggies’ feelings are hurt, no different than when TCU’s feelings were hurt when Schloss’ left Fort Worth for College Station.

No different than when Sonny Dykes left SMU for TCU. When Jimbo Fisher left Florida State for Texas A&M. When Chris Beard left Texas Tech for Texas. When Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU. When Kalen DeBoer left Washington for Alabama.

You’ll notice the Aggie fan base that is so mad had no problem welcoming Schloss’ and Jimbo when they left their respective jobs for A&M. Or when Dennis Franchione left Alabama for College Station.

The desire for the “better job” is a symptom of a profession that is a drug that few can quit, and even fewer recognize the damage it’s done to their lives. They’re nearly all insecure workaholics who become chained to the job, the “fame,” the pursuit of the next win, and unknowingly imprisoned to paying for the quality of life their six and seven-figure payday provides.

Aggie fans have crushed the Internet with cries of, “Now I see the type of person he is.” Or, “Shloss’ showed his true colors.”

He’s the same guy you loved when he had your team this close to a national title. His colors are no different than the day he left TCU for A&M.

No one at Texas A&M saw this coming because they all fooled themselves into thinking they were, as members of the SEC, on the same plane as the school they live to loathe.

The Aggies wanted no part of Bevo in the SEC, because they knew what was coming. UT is not even officially a member of the SEC, but they’re here. To all SEC members, brace yourselves.

What’s coming is the reason why Nebraska wanted out of the Big 12. What’s coming is the reason why Colorado left the Big 12 for the Pac-10.

Because if Texas wants it, Texas is going to get it. No one bullies up to the bar and throws around their wallet like Texas as they leave you to pick up the tab.

That doesn’t mean the Longhorns are always going to win. Ask Bob Stoops and Oklahoma. Or Kansas State. Give a call to Gary Patterson and he can tell you, too. The same for Bill Self.

It’s what makes beating Texas so much fun. But beating Texas these days is growing harder because it finally has its bleep together.

Credit athletic director Chris Del Conte for doing what Steve Patterson failed to do. Credit Del Conte for simply recognizing the full power of the University of Texas, and pooling its obscene amount of resources.

How anyone ever screwed this up is a testament to incompetence.

Whereas former long time Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds didn’t mind being the villain, or “the bad guy,” such a persona does not fit Del Conte.

What Del Conte has done in the last few years at UT is straight out of the DeLoss Dodds’ “I Will Hurt You” playbook.

Del Conte does not want to hurt anybody. He does not like people anyone being mad at him. He’s doing what’s in the best interests of the University of Texas, and because he can.

If you are in the way, and don’t like it, that’s a you problem.

The notion that big time college sports is a “fair” game where everybody has the same chance is as preposterous as the word itself.

The final results of the Learfield Directors Cup are in; this is the annual trophy given to the athletic department that finished with the best record across all sports. Texas finished first. Texas A&M is sixth.

The Aggies aren’t sixth without Schlossnagle’s baseball team coming so close to that national title that both he, and the school, crave. The Aggies have not won a national title in football, men’s basketball or baseball since 1939.

He’s gone now because that’s what coaches do.

He’s gone because, in those immortally misconstrued words, “Don’t mess with Texas.”