Happiness doesn’t last forever, especially not in the sports world. After every victory, the next day comes, and teams have to prepare to face whatever’s next.
But for Texas A&M, you’d think the celebration would’ve lasted a tad longer.
The Aggies are coming off what was perhaps the best season in the program’s history: the team made it to the College World Series finals for the first time and came up one game short of being a national championship.
That title instead went deservingly to Tennessee with its 6-5 win over Texas A&M in game three of the CWS finals.
To be so close from Texas A&M’s standpoint is thoroughly heartbreaking, but nonetheless an achievement worthy of celebrating.
After all, the Aggies were clearly an ascendant program and would be returning lots of stars. Their story certainly didn’t have to end there.
Head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s unexpected departure to state rival Texas turned all of that on its head.
Since he officially signed with the Longhorns on Tuesday, 13 Texas A&M baseball players have entered the transfer portal. Many of them are highly-coveted athletes.
The situation has turned the Southeastern Conference landscape – and, truly, the national baseball landscape – on its head.
What does it mean for LSU?
Could LSU land any of Texas A&M’s outgoing players?
Typically, when a coach switches schools, it’s assumed that many of his players will follow him.
However, the fashion in which Schlossnagle left Texas A&M makes that significantly less likely than in normal situations.
Just days before, Schlossnagle was vehemently denying that he was considering flipping from College Station to Austin despite rumors.
When he changed course, it felt like betrayal to many Texas A&M fans and players, some of whom have been outspoken on social media.
The timing of Schlossnagle’s decision, coming the day after A&M’s loss in the championship, the fact that he didn’t tell any of his players and that he took most of the team’s coaching staff with him understandably ruffled some feathers.
Now, his former players are forced to consider continuing their baseball careers elsewhere.
There remains a possibility that many of the athletes will return to Texas A&M, with the Aggies hiring Michael Earley, their hitting coach this past season who originally followed Schlossnagle to Austin, as their new head coach.
Texas A&M committing to continuity with its head coach hire could convince many of the players to stick in College Station.
However, some of the players have been linked to LSU, most notably all-SEC outfielder Jace LaViolette.
LaViolette was committed to LSU out of high school before flipping to Texas A&M. However, he flipped because his primary recruiter at LSU, Nolan Cain, moved to the Aggies’ coaching staff, and he’s since followed Schlossnagle to Texas.
READ MORE: LSU baseball making waves in the transfer portal: Live updates here
Still, LaViolette would be a massive addition for the Tigers, as the sophomore hit .305 from the plate and smashed 29 home runs and 78 RBI, No. 6 and No. 11 in the nation, respectively.
He may instantly be the best player in the portal, and the second-best may also be an outgoing Aggie.
Third baseman Gavin Grahovac, who was the SEC freshman of the year this season, is also in the portal. He had a .298 batting average and hit 23 home runs this year.
Also in the portal are starters Kaeden Kent, Ali Camarillo and Hayden Schott.
The Tigers are doing their due diligence on these players and all of the Texas A&M evacuees, and any of them would be valuable additions.
However, it seems likely many of them will be sticking with Earley and Texas A&M.
What does this mean for facing these two teams in the SEC going forward?
Texas is joining the SEC starting this upcoming school year, so Schlossnagle continues to be an adversary for LSU even at his new school.
As six-time champions, Texas is one of the most storied baseball programs in the nation, and Schlossnagle’s hire could get them back to the upper echelon they’d fallen from in incumbent David Pierce’s last few years.
Schlossnagle is certainly an effective program-builder, as he’s TCU’s all-time leader in wins and led the Horned Frogs to the CWS five times in 18 years. In just three years with the Aggies, he took the team to the CWS twice and made them a national championship-caliber team.
With that and the fact that he’ll have no shortage of talent at Texas in mind, the Longhorns will certainly be a worthy opponent for years to come for LSU.
It’s harder to say with Texas A&M, as Earley has never been a head coach at any level.
He’s certainly been a key part of the Aggies’ rise the past few years and their improvement at the plate, and he produced similar results at his first assistant coaching gig at Arizona State.
However, he’s not a splashy hire. If Texas A&M can bring back the outgoing transfers who were crucial to its CWS run, it could be a successful team in the short run, but the long-term health of the program would be in question without a top-notch head coach.
The program has historically been capable of making it to the NCAA Tournament, but making it further to the CWS has been elusive. The addition of Schlossnagle had helped Texas A&M turn a corner, but it could return to being a merely good, not great program.
It remains to be seen whether Earley can keep the program’s momentum up and whether Texas A&M will be a program for LSU to look out for in the future.
