Texas A&M And AD Trev Alberts Forgetting His Sneaky Little Exit From Nebraska | Glenn Guilbeau

Fan is short for fanatic, which explains a lot of sports fans' and sports administrators' behavior and thought processes, particularly on the collegiate level.

As accurate a description of such folks is self-absorbed. So many athletic programs and their fans do not truly experience something until it happens to them.

Such is the case at the moment with the Texas A&M Nation, aka the Texas Abomination Movement.

Their somewhat secluded world - if you've ever been to College Station - is aghast that it has lost a coach to a better job. Never mind this happens all the time in major college sports. It just hasn't happened at A&M in a while, because they haven't had many great coaches lately that other programs want.

Former Aggies coach Jim Schlossnagle greets Tennessee coach Tony Vitello before their national championship game on June 24 in Omaha, Nebraska, at the College World Series.  (Getty Images)

But Jim Schlossnagle - the best baseball coach A&M has ever had, if national championship contention is significant to you - is a great coach and left for something better. And that was hated Texas, leaving a 100-mile trail of tears for the Aggies and enough angst fuel to drive them to El Paso.

Never mind that Schlossnagle didn't go to Texas A&M and is not from Texas - not even close. He's from Hagerstown, Maryland, and played at Elon in North Carolina. Texas is one of the top brand names in all of college baseball and has been for decades. It is synonymous with Omaha, Nebraska, as it has trekked there more than any other program with 38 trips, winning six national titles and finishing second another six times.

A&M only started staying in Omaha for more than a few nights just two years ago under Schlossnagle, who led the Aggies to more than two wins at the CWS for the first time in his first season in 2022. Then last month, Schlossnagle took A&M to within seven outs of its first major national championship of any kind since the football team won it all in 1939.

Along the way, probably with about a month to go in the season, Schlossnagle agreed in principle to become Texas' new baseball coach. He kept it a secret from his players and almost everyone, which constitutes lies of omission, and lied directly about it, too. But he had to. That's how it works when sought after coaches get jobs. There are no hiring periods or summers of job searches as in the rest of the world. It happens with bullets flying. Always has.

But Schlossnagle's lies helped A&M's program, whether the Aggie Nation or its media sympathizers admits it or not.

Had Schlossnagle come clean late in the season, it would've been a disaster. Several of his players probably wouldn't have wanted to play for him. Instead, what they didn't know helped them play better. And despite key injuries, Schlossnagle directed A&M to a 9-0 run in the NCAA postseason before losing games two and three of the national championship best-of-three series to the Vols.

It was the greatest season in Texas A&M baseball history, period, after decades of being not quite good enough to even get close to a national title, which is also the history of the football and men's basketball programs.

OPINION: Jim Schlossnagle Is No Worse Than Many Players Entering Portal

But it was the slimy way he left A&M, Aggies fans have cried. And he could've handled it much better. He didn't need to jump on a young reporter doing his job and asking about the Texas rumors after the Aggies lost to Texas last week. But, please, it wasn't that bad. I've seen much worse from Kim Mulkey, and unlike her, Schlossnagle did apologize profusely to the reporter.

New Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts decided to join the pity party and cater to his newfound constituency this week after hiring Schlossnagle's replacement - former Texas A&M hitting coach Michael Earley.

Texas Aggies athletic director Trev Alberts was miffed at how baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle left for Texas last week, but Alberts did much the same thing in leaving Nebraska, his alma mater, for the Aggies just last spring. (Getty Images)

Alberts told the Houston Chronicle that "several donors" from Texas A&M told him late in the baseball season that Schlossnagle may be leaving for Texas after the season.

"We hosted a regional (May 31-June 2), and after the regional, I said, 'Can we meet?,'" Alberts said. "We scheduled a meeting for Monday (June 3), and he canceled. We scheduled a meeting for that Tuesday, and he canceled."

Well, Trev, he WAS trying to get his team ready for a Super Regional. Finally, on Wednesday, Schlossnagle sat with Alberts.

"We talked at length," Alberts said. "I said, ‘Are you frustrated? Is there anything I can do?’ And at the end of the conversation, I said, ‘Jim, if you’re not happy here, and you want to leave, that’s OK. But please don’t hurt our program, and don’t hurt our kids.’ That’s what I said. And he said, ‘I will never do that, Trev.’ I said, ‘OK.'"

After A&M beat Oregon on June 9 in the Super Regional to reach Omaha for the second time under Schlossnagle after no trips since 2017 pre-Schlossnagle, the coach was supposed to meet on June 11 with the 12th Man Foundation to discuss the approved $80 million redevelopment of Blue Bell Park.

"And he didn’t come to the meeting," Alberts said.

Well, Trev, he did have a game in Omaha on June 15. 

"Two days later, I called a search firm and said, ‘Let’s get ready to do a search,'" Alberts said.

Trev Alberts introduces new baseball coach Michael Earley on Tuesday in College Station, Texas. (Getty Images)

Funny, Alberts didn't hire Earley until after Tennessee coach Tony Vitello and Virginia coach Brian O'Conner resisted his advances to steal them from their jobs, which is what Texas did to him. And what A&M did to TCU when it hired Schlossnagle after the 2021 season. But since TCU wasn't just in the World Series final, no one shamed A&M.

Schlossnagle did lie because he did hurt his kids and the program because he left. But again, this happens all the time. And at least he didn't hurt the players and the program until after he got both parties to the cusp of the first baseball national championship in program history. And I think all the Aggies enjoyed that like there was no tomorrow, and no Texas.

It would have hurt the players and the program more for Schlossnagle just to mail it in during the postseason and end the season early early, so he could get ready for his new job.

Would A&M fans and Alberts have preferred not going to Omaha for a smoother transition? Not unless they're stupid. Now, Earley can recruit to the national championship series he helped the Aggies reach.

Hot, great coaches like Schlossnagle leave all the time. A&M's just not used to it, and it has an inferiority complex the size of Texas toward Texas.

Trev Alberts Left Nebraska Blindsided

And Trev Alberts seems to be forgetting how he left his athletic director post at Nebraska, which IS his alma mater, which retired his number 34. Alberts was a superstar linebacker at Nebraska from 1990-93, winning the Butkus Award.

Alberts, didn't leave the day after losing a national championship game. But he did leave just four months after agreeing to an eight-year contract extension last November that doubled his salary with a base of $1.7 million and made him one of the highest paid athletic directors in the country. And he blindsided everyone in leadership at Nebraska, including football coach Matt Rhule, whom he just hired before last season.

At least in Schlossnagle's case, Alberts knew he was leaving on June 11 and the donors knew well before that. 

Alberts, on the other hand, basically left like a thief in the night.

"I am deeply disappointed by Trev Albert's decision to leave so soon after restating his commitment to Nebraska, and I don't fully understand or know his reasons why," Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen said in a statement at the time.

Texas A&M people should've known this could happen, but instead they were living in never-never land thinking Schlossnagle would not leave for Texas. Schlossnagle, meanwhile, had it written in his contract that should he go to an in-state school like Texas, his buyout would be doubled.

Apparently, Alberts didn't think Nebraska acted quickly enough in replacing Nebraska president Ted Carter, who announced his departure on Aug. 22. Those things take time, Trev. Leaders, as you claim to be, don't abandon ship so quickly. But Texas A&M does pay well.

"Leadership matters now more than ever before," Alberts said upon introduction at A&M. Yeah, now that you left your leadership position at Nebraska to, at least partly, follow the money.

"There is no other way to say this," Husker Big Red writer Danny Jaillet said last March after Alberts left. "Former Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts completely betrayed the entire athletic department."

So, Trev Alberts, it looks like you're upset with Jim Schlossnagle for doing the same thing you did. As the Church Lady would say, "How con-VEN-ient." 

And, welcome to the SEC, by the way. Better shed the thin skin we all saw during your ESPN analyst days (2002-05) quickly.

Sometimes, as Alberts has experienced more than once, there is often no good way to leave a job.