Dave Van Horn believes Texas had 'turmoil inside the program' with David Pierce

Texas fired head baseball coach David Pierce on Monday, just hours before the start of Game 3 of the College World Series finals between Texas A&M and Tennessee.

It was a move that was not surprising to Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn.

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“We knew three weeks ago that Texas was going to let their coach go – turmoil inside the program,” Dave Van Horn recently said.

Van Horn didn’t necessarily feel that David Pierce should be let go, but word was already out that the move was coming. Pierce spent eight seasons with the Longhorns, winning three Big 12 regular season titles and making the College World Series three times.

Still, it wasn’t enough for him to keep his job as Texas Athletics Director Chris Del Conte decided it was time for a change.

“If you look at the wins and losses, it’s been pretty good. Getting to Omaha, been pretty good. Just been other problems,” Van Horn said. “I think somebody was there that wanted somebody else and there you go.”

Texas quickly replaced Pierce with Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle, just a day after the Aggies’ season came to an end. The move left Aggies fans frustrated, which is understandable to Van Horn.

“Am I surprised? Not really. But then again, I am a little bit, because of what was going to go on at A&M. They’d already made commitments to upgrade the stadium. Their fan base is huge, it’s passionate. They show up, they make a lot of noise, they make it really hard for you to win there,” Van Horn said. “They have a lot of tradition. It’s in Texas. There’s a lot of players — a lot of players to recruit down the road at Houston, up the road in Dallas and over there, over there. I don’t know. I don’t know what to think about it.”

Troy Tulowitzki will not be part of Jim Schlossnagle’s Texas coaching staff

In other Texas coaching news, Troy Tulowitzki will not be a part of Jim Schlossnagle’s Texas Longhorns’ baseball staff, according to Kirk Bohls.

“Texas director of player development, Troy Tulowitzki, tells me he won’t be joining Jim Schlossnagle’s staff sadly,” Bohls wrote on Twitter. “He was terrific working with hitters. ‘I like the college game if I do something.’ He’s being approached by many suitors and could have had USC, Long Beach jobs.”

Tulowitzki retired from professional baseball in 2019 and joined the Texas staff in 2020, where he served as an assistant for three seasons. He became the Director of Player Development in 2024 and served in the role this past spring.

But with Schlossnagle coming in, changes were imminent for the Longhorns. This wasn’t the first time Tulowitzki left the Texas program.

He left after the 2022 season after he emerged as a candidate for the USC job, which he ultimately turned down. But, as Bohls reported, he might not be a coaching free agent for too long. 

In his playing career, Tulowitzki spent time with the Colorado Rockies, Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. He was a five-time All-Star, two-time Gold Glove Award winner, and a two-time Silver Slugger. Tulowitzki was a career .290 hitter, and he had 225 home runs and drove in 780 runs before calling it a career in July of 2021.