Michael Earley's Aggies will travel into enemy territory, facing former head coach Jim Schlossnagle and the No. 1 Texas Longhorns for a three-game set this weekend. D1Baseball's Kendall Rogers joins TexAgs Live to preview the highly anticipated series.
Key notes from Kendall Rogers interview
- This is really interesting, how college baseball can go. I remember before the Tennessee series, we sat on here, and I think you had asked me, "Hey, do you think it is done? Do you feel like this team has no chance of turning it around?" At the time, it was like, "No, it doesn't look like they are going to turn this around." You think back to Oregon in 2017. They won the national championship when they were struggling. Virginia, back in 2015, struggled most of the year. Of course, Ole Miss.
- I always think about the Fullerton team in 2004. They were one game over .500 on April 20, and they ended up winning the national championship. There is always a team here and there that, for whatever reason, takes half the season to figure itself out. That seemed to be the case with this A&M team.
- We look heavily at the current state, but we also look ahead a little. For instance, we have Mississippi State out this week because we looked at their schedule and said, "Hey, they are at six conference wins." It is just a difficult pathway. What is really interesting with this A&M team when you look ahead? If they win this series this weekend, this sounds insane considering where they were. They are a LSU or Georgia series win away from probably hosting, which is crazy.
- To some extent, you have to feel like Jim Schlossnagle looked back about the midseason mark, and I doubt he's thinking too much about A&M right now because his team is having a great season. If you are looking ahead to the season, whether you are Michael Earley or you are Schlossnagle, you are looking forward to the A&M-Texas series, but in a way it is, "Here we go." I think if you are Schlossnagle & Co. and looked at A&M in the midseason mark and went, "OK, these guys are going to come in here and be scuffling. They are going to be doubting themselves. OK, that's the best case scenario we can think about.”
- Now, it is like the worst-case scenario you can think of. You got A&M rolling in there with a full head of steam, and Jared Spencer, unfortunately, loved the job he has done in the Friday spot this year for Texas. He is out for the weekend and probably out for the year for them, which would be a tough blow. You go into the weekend without your Friday starter. You are having to reshuffle your whole pitching staff. Meanwhile, A&M is back to being that national championship type of team, and that's a scary combo.
- You look at all the different variables going into the weekend. I would think A&M would have a pretty big crowd in Austin. It is going to be fun. It is going to be as fun as it gets for a regular-season baseball series. This is the first series that A&M and Texas have played as members of the SEC, and the first series they have played since A&M has played since leaving the Big 12. We aren't talking about that because of the Schlossnagle element.
- I think both are up against it to some degree. Let's throw Earley in the mix. Don't forget how much he was thrown into that drama. I think they are both up against a little bit. I looked back on Ryan Brauninger's interview with Hayden Schott yesterday. He asked about the Texas series. Schott didn't tip his hand too much. I thought it was funny when he said it was just another series and just glared at Brauninger. I feel like that is just the mindset of “This is all business,” but there is a personal element to it.
- I will say this about Schlossnagle, too. Knowing how competitive of a person he is, there is zero question that his decisions had nothing to do with those players. I think there is an element of him where you hate playing those players. There is also an element where that was a nasty split, and he has certainly documented some of the phone calls that he has gotten. I'm sure, as odd as it is, he wants to beat A&M more than anyone else. It is just a lot of competitive people playing the game of baseball, and potentially the biggest series of the year in college baseball.
- I always try to underrate the chippiness because, as much as a rivalry it is, all of these kids know each other. They played with each other in travel ball and in high school baseball. I don't think it is the players that will be chippy. I think it will be more so in the stands.
- I estimate that A&M will have around 1,000, possibly 700 or 800 people there. It all depends on how many people bought tickets early on. I have gone back and forth with the series. It is hard to pick against Texas at home because every time they had someone go down, they had someone step up. They play a really good brand of baseball, but there is no doubt when you look at the way A&M is playing baseball right now. You've got your bullpen pieces starting to come together with Weston Moss and Luke Jackson, who grew up a bit, I thought, in Fayetteville last week. This offense, when Terrence Kiel II is hitting a home run for you, that means things are going right.
