Two losses occured Tuesday afternoon in College Station.
One saw former Texas A&M baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle leave the program for a job 100 miles west of Aggieland in the scorching heat of Austin, while the other saw the coach himself forfeit his status as an Aggie, and not just in a literal sense.
It seldom happens. Coaches come and go — especially within a program so hellbent on finding success in a dynamic collegiate sports landscape — but they often leave after failing to make the College Football Playoff, The Big Dance in March or baseball's coveted College World Series.
Most recently, those coaches to go were Billy Kennedy in 2019, Rob Childress in 2021, and Jimbo Fisher in 2023. While the last one left a sour taste in the mouths of Aggie faithful, it was only because he simply didn't live up to the hype he came in with. The "write-your-own" plaque he was given upon taking the job in College Station had to be thrown away, and fans likely won't recall fondly many memories of the seasons he spent there.
Even then, when the Aggies were seemingly on the precipice of becoming the program they dreamed of being, Fisher didn't deliver or follow through. The struggles that Texas A&M came to be too familiar with continued after that season, but Fisher didn't leave until he was let go.
And he certainly didn't leave the year after finishing No. 4 in the country after beating down on North Carolina in the Orange Bowl.
Parallels can be drawn from the state of those Aggies and the state of the ones who sat in disbelief against the backstop of their own dugout after coming one run shy of a national championship over the Tennessee Volunteers.
Sure, the 2021 football team wasn't contending for a national title, but finally making a statement to the playoff committee after faring far better than Notre Dame — the team that beat out Texas A&M for the right to be in the College Football Playoff —meant that they felt they were on the cusp of truly contending.
The same goes with last night's Texas A&M Aggies. After making it to Omaha in Year 1 of the Jim Schlossnagle era, they fell backward slightly in a loss during the Standford regional. The response?
They landed one of the Cardinal's best transfers, Braden Montgomery, and rallied behind him to get back. After he went down with an injury in Round 2 of the NCAA Tournament, they flexed their depth to reach the final series without him.
They put together a valiant effort in hopes of coming away with their first major national title in ages.
They fell short. But what they accomplished isn't able to be overlooked because what they showed was that they, too, were at the cusp of becoming a powerhouse. With one of the nation's best coaches, Texas A&M was one piece away from winning it all next season, or at the very least, competing for it.
The Aggies had everything but a trophy to show for their efforts, and Schlossnagle was supposed to be the person to deliver that to them.
Not anymore.
He made sure of that.
Schlossnagle sat next to a heartbroken graduate student-athlete Monday night in Omaha. He watched him field questions about how great of a season he'd had, how proud he was of The 12th Man, and what he loved most about the program.
Just a few minutes before, he watched that same player, Hayden Schott, sit on the dirt with his teammates' arms around his shoulder as they both came to terms with the fact that their season was over. He watched every single one of his players endure one of the biggest heartbreaks in sports.
For those who were leaving, there was added turmoil to deal with, as leaving behind an entire collegiate career is never easy. For those who were staying, there was a feeling of sadness, but also an added boost of motivation to get the job done in the next season. They'd do it for themselves, their teammates, and the coach who promised to get them there.
Only that coach wasn't going to be Schlossnagle.
He'd end up taking the head coaching job for the Aggies' biggest rival, the Texas Longhorns, but not before giving his players a sense of false hope.
"I think it’s pretty selfish of you you to ask me that question, to be honest with you," Schlossnagle said coldly to a reporter who addressed the question that, in hindsight, would have given his intentions away. "I left my family to be the coach at Texas A&M. I took the job at Texas A&M to never take another job again. And that hasn’t changed in my mind."
That statement alone calmed the worries of any who felt he might consider leaving the program he built for a "better" position. That statement alone made the move hurt worse.
He didn't stop there. He actually berated the reporter.
"I gave up a big part of my life to come take this job," he assured the media room. "I poured every ounce of my soul into this job, and I gave this job every ounce I could possibly give it.
"Write that."
We did.
Within minutes, the headlines went from "" to "Selfish! Jim Schlossnagle Shoots Down Longhorns Coaching Rumors." The national narrative was spun to make the reporter look like the bad guy, and Schlossnagle the unwavering hero of the Aggies' baseball program. But he wasn't being totally honest.
When the news came in that Schlossnagle had taken the job in Austin, Texas A&M went from heartbroken to feeling betrayed. Not only had they just lost the coach who had brought them to two College World Series appearances in three seasons, but they'd lost him less than 24 hours after he fervently assured his place in College Station was permanent.
The Aggies have seen something like this before. Way back in 1957, then-head football coach Bear Bryant helped turn around Texas A&M's program. It was in a position to contend for a national title — sound familiar? — and didn't expect anything to get in the way of that. Only midway through the season, it was announced that Bryant had decided to assume the same role at Alabama.
Those Aggies didn't win another game after starting the season 8-0. They didn't win a title as they had hoped, and they certainly didn't continue to rise into a national contender in the years that followed. It was the backstabbing of all time to many Aggies, yet, somehow it was watered down by the fact that Bryant was an Alabama alumnus.
That's what makes Schlossnagle's move hurt worse. He had no prior basis for taking the job. No known personal connection other than Chris Del Conte — the Longhorns' new athletic director — which apparently meant more to him than any of the connections he'd made in three seasons with the Aggies.
And yet, all of it could have been avoided.
Or at least delivered in a better way.
Instead of baring his teeth at the reporter asking about the now clear interest he had in the position over with Texas, he could have declined to answer the question. He could have informed the media that he was in no position to speak on his future after witnessing all of his players suffer one of the worst losses of their collegiate careers — and some, their last.
But he didn't. What he did was speak about his 'commitment' to the Aggies. He decided to jump ship and leave a program on the rise high and dry. Now, Texas A&M faces the arduous task of retaining its recruits, keeping its players, and reassuring its transfers. Not only does it have to embark on another coaching search, but it has to find a coach who could do what Schlossnagle was able to do.
That was arguably the hardest part of the entire dilemma.
There isn't any denying how good of a coach he was. It makes sense why Texas wanted to target him to fill the void left by David Pierce, and why it'd be willing to offer him the double buyout he's entitled to for making an in-state move.
But as justified as the Longhorns were in wanting Schlossnagle, it won't change the new narrative surrounding the former coach in Aggieland. Fans once joked about building Schlossnagle a statue at Olsen Field if he were to deliver on his promise to win a national title, and now, he's the face of the Aggies' biggest betrayal. He's the coach who did the unthinkable.
The Aggies must find a way to move past the loss they've endured, and they will. Whether or not they'll be able to remain at the level they were with Schlossnagle is yet to be seen, but they're certainly going to try.
And when Schlossnagle comes to town sporting Burnt Orange at the helm of the Longhorns' program, he'll be showered with boos instead of bubbles. He'll be omitted from any positive retellings of Aggie baseball's "glory days."
As far as Texas A&M's faithful are concerned, he's lost his Aggie status in every sense.
Schlossnagle wasn't shy about stating that he left his family for the head coaching job at Texas A&M when boasting about the sacrifices he'd made to be where he was.
The irony, now, is that he's seemingly done the same thing. Only the Maroon & White family he's leaving behind for Austin is much bigger.
And extremely unforgiving.
