Michael Earley admits to overselling Tennessee atmosphere prior to series

Texas A&M baseball coach Michael Earley admitted to overselling the Tennessee atmosphere when the Aggies played there earlier this season. He didn’t do the same this past weekend against Arkansas.

Prior to the series, Earley made sure to let his players know the Knoxville atmosphere was insane. After losing 10-0 in Game 1 in seven innings, Texas A&M bounced back.

The Aggies ended the series with two straight wins and also took two of three on the road against Arkansas last weekend. Seems like Earley’s messaging worked.

“Yeah, I mean, I think what we’ve done, I mean, this year, like, I think when we went into Tennessee, I completely oversold their atmosphere,” Earley said to TexAgs. “No disrespect to them. It’s just, you know, I want them to be prepared. And going to Arkansas I said, raise your hand if you think I oversold Tennessee. They all rose their hands. I said, that ain’t going to be the case here. So just really not shying away from it, like I tell them what it’s going to be and, you know, the whole goal was just to keep the place silent. 

“I mean, when you’re winning and you’re in the lead, there’s nothing better than hearing 14,000 people actually not say anything. So then again, the stuff in-game was interesting, right? I guess I need to sharpen up on the rules and all facets and including replay, just to better understand so I have a better idea, because I clearly don’t, but I’ll just leave it at that.”

Texas A&M and Earley are currently 23-16 overall and 8-10 in the SEC after Easter. The Aggies will take on Sam Houston at home Tuesday night before a weekend series against Texas in Austin.

Texas is currently ranked No. 1, so perhaps Earley has to talk about silencing that crowd and atmosphere too. It’ll certainly be a challenge.

Earley is in the middle of his first season as head coach for the Aggies. He spent the last three seasons as an assistant at Texas A&M and was an assistant at Arizona State for the five seasons prior (2017-21). 

Earley played college baseball at Indiana before playing for the Chicago White Sox organization for six seasons. He spent his career in the minor leagues from 2010-15 before transitioning into coaching.