Frogs’ coach hops on board
A&M spends big on Schlossnagle to bring ‘champonship-caliber’ baseball
COLLEGE STATION — Olsen Field fans once welcomed Jeff Weible, a catcher of ample size for the University of Washington, to Texas A&M with a treat around Valentine’s Day of 1993. “They lowered a Twinkie down on a string from the second deck, right into our dugout,” then-Huskies coach Ken Knutson recalled with a chuckle. “Weible ate it.”
Olsen Field, now better known as Blue Bell Park, once owned a reputation for a perpetual feeding frenzy on the opposition, but fans’ collective ravenous appetite for college baseball has dampened in recent years, based on an inability by the home team to enjoy any kind of feast in late June.
That’s why A&M athletic director Ross Bjork allowed Rob Childress’ contract to expire this month, and why he turned to TCU’s Jim Schlossnagle to try to get things cooking again along the railroad tracks in College Station. Schlossnagle is expected to make about $1.25 million annually over seven years at A&M, a little more than $400,000 more than Childress made annually.
“As our search (for a coach) progressed, it became abundantly clear that Jim Schlossnagle had the experience, recruiting prowess, player development background and baseball knowledge to deliver a championshipcaliber program for Aggie baseball,” Bjork said. “He owns the best winning percentage of any college baseball program in Texas over the last 10 years, and his track record of success on a national stage speaks for itself.
“Texas A&M deserves to have the very best of the best, and we hit a proverbial ‘grand slam’ with coach Schlossnagle.”
Time will tell on that front, if the goal is to win a national title at a place that routinely finishes in the nation’s top 10 in college baseball attendance. When then-A&M athletic director Scott Woodward hired football coach Jimbo Fisher nearly four years ago, Fisher had won a national title at Florida State in 2013.
When Woodward hired basketball coach Buzz Williams two years ago, Williams had revived a Virginia Tech program and before that led Marquette to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament — still three victories from a national title.
Fisher has the skin that truly matters hanging on the wall while trying to add to A&M’s lone skin in football from 1939, while Williams and Schlossnagle are hoping to one day break out the hanging nails at their respective College Station stops.
Schlossnagle’s 20-year head coaching résumé is indeed impressive, however, especially in comparison to A&M in baseball. The Aggies own a combined two victories in College World Series contests since 1947. Schlossnagle has more than five times as many wins (11) as A&M in five visits to the CWS in Omaha, Neb., in the last 11 years, despite not winning a national title in that span.
“With the resources and facilities available at this world-class university, the foundation is here to win championships and make the 12th Man a regular visitor to Omaha,” Schlossnagle vowed to Aggies on Wednesday.
The Horned Frogs’ oncepromising season wrapped up last weekend a bit earlier than expected with consecutive losses to Dallas Baptist and Oregon State in the Fort Worth Regional of the NCAA Tournament. TCU (41-19) shared the Big 12 regular-season title with Texas and won the Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City.
Schlossnagle coached 16 players who have appeared in the major leagues since 2008, including three-time All-Star infielder Matt Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals and pitcher Jake Arietta, who won the 2015 Cy Young Award with the Chicago Cubs.
“Thank you … for making (TCU baseball) the program that it is today,” Carpenter posted to Schlossnagle via social media on Wednesday. “You taught me and many others what a commitment to excellence looks like.”
Prior to Schlossnagle’s arrival in 2004, TCU made two NCAA tournaments. The Horned Frogs have played in 15 since under the Maryland native and former Elon University pitcher and won three Big 12 regular-season titles and three Big 12 tournament titles in the last eight years.
A&M last made the CWS in 2017 and was promptly sent packing by TCU. The Horned Frogs also had eliminated the Aggies from the postseason in best-ofthree super regionals in 2015 and 2016, further whetting A&M fans’ craving for a consistent winner.
Following TCU’s 4-1 victory in the super regional finale five years ago this week at Blue Bell Park, a dejected Childress congratulated Schlossnagle and the Horned Frogs.
“They played an outstanding game and won the series,” Childress said. “They’re moving on, and we’re not.”