The Aggies have their guy (and the players are thrilled)
After Head Coach Jim Schlossnagle decided to head to Austin, Texas A&M has hired former assistant Michael Earley to lead the Aggie baseball program. Earley served as the hitting coach for the Aggies since Schlossnagle took over in 2022 and played a major role in the improvement of the A&M bats. Under Earley’s tutelage, A&M set a program record in 2024 by hitting 136 home runs, shattering the previous record of 128 set in 1999.
In addition to his prowess as a hitting coach, Earley is beloved by former and current A&M players. If you opened Twitter at all in the past few days, you would have several former players, including Dylan Rock and Jack Moss, going to bat for Earley.
More importantly, hiring Earley keeps the train rolling and avoids a total rebuild. According to D1 Baseball’s Kendall Rogers, he expects every A&M player in the transfer portal to remain in Aggieland. A far cry from just a few days ago when outsiders expected the entire roster to follow the former head coach 90 miles west.
And before you shout “TRAITOR!” for Earley initially going with Schloss to Austin, he never updated his Twitter with anything Texas or burnt orange. It’s obvious he loves Aggieland and this is where he wants to be.
Michael Earley is not yet a proven head coach in the SEC and it remains to be seen if he is the guy that can get A&M to the mountain top. But with the performance of the Aggie bats during his tenure, the roster remaining intact, and an energized base of boosters behind him, it’s easy to be encouraged about the future of the program.
Two things on the Michael Earley hire:
1) I expect every A&M player in the portal to stay put given this news.
2) Keep an eye on a Power 5 head coach to be Earley’s top assistant.#Aggies https://t.co/cDOMjar3bY
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) June 30, 2024