PurpleExile

To answer the original question, no, Woodward did not interview or even call Schlossnagle after Mainieri left. Schloss' only contact with LSU was through Skip, whose input into the coaching search was only given cursory consideration.

Woodward was fixated elsewhere. He and his Catholic High buddies were hot on Corbin and then O'Sullivan. But A&M really wanted Schlossnagle. They gave him a midnight deadline on a Wednesday. Schloss was still calling people that evening. Having been at Tulane, he knew what LSU was and considered it his dream job. He told this to multiple people.
But Woodward never called. At precisely a couple of minutes past midnight that Wednesday night, Kendall Rogers made the announcement that Schlossnagle had accepted the Texas A&M job.

A&M was never on Schloss' dream list. But he felt it was time to leave TCU and Fort Worth. He was going through an uncomfortable divorce. His former boss at TCU (Del Conte) had left for Texas.

I'm not going to argue Schlossnagle's record at TCU. Understand, though, that TCU has never had a Vandy-type private school situation. He didn't have any more advantages at TCU than LSU had with TOPS.
TCU fancies itself as a football school, and all the money goes there.
TCU likes to think its baseball stadium is great but it would be in the bottom quarter of SEC schools. Schloss had also been told there were no major improvements planned for the ballpark unless he first raised the money himself.

So he left. And he built A&M into a damn good team. But he realized it was Aggieland and Big Brother would always be in Austin. Del Conte pushed hard for him to leave A&M, and so he did. A career and lifestyle move -- only an idiot would argue that.

Was it a dick move to leave A&M the way he did? Coaches leave all the time. He felt he was leaving behind a good program at A&M and they would be fine.

You people that say he's a bad guy don't have a clue. His players in pro ball regularly go back and visit him and work out there in the off-season. He has coached the USA Collegiate team and those guys always talk glowingly of him.

Maybe he didn't win the College World Series when he was at TCU, but he got the Frogs there five times.

Texas made a great hire. So did LSU.

I'd take Corso just propped up in the chair in an embalmed state over that arse-clown, drugged-up McAfee, who thinks the show is all about him.

You can have him.
He's perfect for that smug, entitled Texas mentality.
Don't kid yourself, though. A small, ultra-rich group of Orangeblood boosters controls the major athletics decisions in Austin. Always have.
The same group botched the Saban hiring (thank god!). The same group wanted Tom Herman (thank god again!).

Del Conte is all hat. I see he even owns a cowboy hat now. And he looks ridiculous in it, with his pocket handkerchief and his palm inside Matthew McConaughey's chaps.

Texas has limitless funds, but let's see how they do on the big SEC stage in the big sports. (I'm not talking about swimming or tennis).
They're used to having their way in the SWC and Big 12. Del Conte won't be able to bully TCU and Texas Tech in the SEC.

quote:

---

I too like hvl but she doesn't compete well against top tier teams.

---

TCU beat NC State, Notre Dame (twice) and Baylor (twice) and won 34 of 38 games. Lots of teams have had trouble with Texas, including the one in Baton Rouge.

I saw HVL play five times in person this season. She was never going to be a star point guard in the SEC because she doesn't have the quickness, especially on defense.

But she hustles her butt off and she is an extremely smart player. She knew her only path to the WNBA was to learn how to play point guard from one of the best ever in Mulkey. The experiment failed.
Van Lith was rejuvenated by making the Olympic team in 3-on-3 and then by going back to her old role at TCU. She was easily the best player in the Big 12....but it was the Big 12.

My guess is that HVL will be a bench player for some WNBA team, but will really make her money by playing a few years in that new 3-on-3 league.
That's her game.

She's also going to make a helluva young basketball coach when her playing days are finished.

quote:

---

This won't be a popular opinion, but Boston was CRAZY to give Bregman that contract. His best days are behind him, and have been for awhile.

---

Astros fans want the cheating talk to go away. Sure, it's old news, but it's in the record books and that makes a LOT of MLB (outside of Houston and Louisiana) still pissed off. It was fun to hear Bregman booed in Texas over the weekend, while Red Sox fans were going, "Wait, what? We inherited this?"

I am LSU through and through, but Bregman lost me forever over the 2017-18 thing. He's dead to me, as far as my LSU loyalty.

And yes, I agree that his career has begun its decline. I think the Red Sox grossly overpaid. Scott Boras is a magician.

I just don't think Tim is going to kill himself. The tragedy therein would overshadow what looms as the season's blockbuster ending.

Instead, I sorta feel that Kenny, the guy who apparently got Tim into this whole mess, is the one who ends up killing himself, and so the FBI drops the whole case.

What Tim does with this development is between him and his Buddha.

quote:

---

Schloss likes to lie. No one at Aggy was sad to see him go.

---

Schlossnagle's only big lies have come when he told the media that he wasn't interested in changing jobs....even though he knew he was.

But to suggest that the Aggies were happy to see him go is silly. They were furious that he left, especially the timing of it and where he was headed to.

After he was gone, sure, they were saying good riddance, but that's what cults do.

Disch-Falk was last upgraded 15 years ago and it's nothing special.
The main thing is the lack of parking. People have to park across I-35 and cross an overpass to get to the stadium. Plus, a busy road runs directly next to the first-base line and you can hear motorcycles and truck horns honking the entire game.

The premier state university of Texas should have better.

It was Cliff Gustafson who coached there for about 20 years and decided he wanted his home field to be pitcher- and small-ball friendly. Hence, the artificial turf and turf basepaths. The field is not slow. Balls hit on the ground have always scooted through the infield there. It might be better now that they've changed from AstroTurf to Field Turf.

For years the Texas high school finals have been played there, and UT people have always said that that's why they have the turf -- to avoid the wear and tear. I call bullshite, but that's Texas.

They literally have no room to redo the stadium. The entire Texas campus is actually full to the brim. Parking garages everywhere. Very little green space. It's not an attractive campus (but compared to the A&M campus, it looks like Harvard). It's locked in on all sides.

If they want a new baseball park, they will have to build it elsewhere.

quote:

---

Curne will have to ramp up the intensity. Arkansas high school football is not the same as Louisiana

---

Maybe so, but in his high school highlights video he was *always* the most aggressive guy on the field. He literally blocked til the whistle (and sometimes then some) on every play.

You can tell he's had some good coaching from somewhere.

It'll be interesting when he gets reps against the Defense #1s.

"Summer of 10,000 catches"