Texas fires David Pierce after eight seasons

Texas has fired David Pierce after spending eight seasons with the program, according to Kirk Bohls. Pierce took over in 2017 for the legendary Augie Garrido, hoping to continue the great baseball tradition in Austin. While there was some success, athletic director Chris Del Conte felt the need to make a move as the Longhorns head into the ultra-competitive SEC.

Pierce does have a lengthy list of accomplishments while on the 40 Acres. Texas won three Big 12 regular season championships, with the latest being in 2023. All but one of the eight seasons resulted in an NCAA Tournament appearance with three including trips to Omaha for the College World Series.

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There was never a breakthrough once on the big stage, though. A program hoping to win national championships, Texas is still in a long drought since the last title in 2005. The last time even making the CWS Finals was in 2009, ultimately losing to LSU.

Speculation surrounding Pierce’s job has been around for a couple of years but postseason performances were too good to move on. Texas did not bounce back after a rocky, at times, 2024 regular season and was eliminated after three games in the College Station Regional. One of the losses being to arch-rival Texas A&M certainly did not help.

Pierce ultimately finished with a 297-162 record with the Longhorns and 101-71 against Big 12 foes. He will not get the opportunity to consistently compete against SEC teams, at least with Texas.

Texas entering new era with SEC with new head coach

While the Big 12 is a competitive baseball conference, the SEC tends to be a different beast. Just looking at the College World Series occurring right now, half of the field is from the SEC. And one is the Florida Gators, a team some experts believed to not be worthy of an at-large spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Del Conte has been aggressive in hiring head coaches, no matter the sport. A report earlier in June from Kendall Rogers of D1 Baseball stated Texas would go after LSU’s Jay Johnson and Texas A&M’s Jim Schlossnagle.

Johnson is just a year removed from winning a national championship in Baton Rouge, while Del Conte and Schlossnagle have a relationship due to working at TCU together. Texas will certainly try to make a big-name hire and enter the SEC with a ton of momentum, hoping to fit into the conference.