Jim Schlossnagle was introduced Wednesday morning (June 26) as the new head baseball coach at the University of Texas.
He told reporters he made his decision on Tuesday, and said he understands the reaction from the Texas A&M fan base to his decision.
He said more than once that the decision could not have been done any other way.
During his prepared remarks, Schlossnagle said “There’s a lot of decisions in life that you don’t get to choose the timing. You don’t get to meet with your team as you would like. And for that, I am sorry.”
In response to a reporter’s question, Schlossnagle said “I have a career too. I have a personal life as well. I have goals. And I just simply felt like, no negative at Texas A&M. Just the positives of the alignment and frankly my relationship with (U-T athletic director) Chris” (Del Conte) that “I just know that I can trust Chris” and “as hard as that decision was, I could not walk away from that.”
Schlossnagle also said in his prepared remarks that “I need a great leader.” “And Chris is the best leader that I’ve ever known.” “And although it was super, super hard and emotional to make this decision because of my love for the players at Texas A&M, I simply could not pass up this opportunity.”
He also said it was important to bring to U-T, associate head coach Nolan Cain, pitching coach Max Weiner, and hitting coach Michael Early.
Click below to hear Jim Schlossnagle’s prepared remarks and responses to reporter questions, recorded from the University of Texas athletics website https://texassports.com/showcase/embed.aspx?Live=747