Danny Kanell calls out Jim Schlossnagle for 'awful' handling of Texas A&M exit to Texas

Danny Kanell did not hold back when he saw Jim Schlossnagle leave Texas A&M for the Texas Longhorns right after the College World Series.

In a stunning move, Schlossnagle took the Longhorns’ job a mere 24 hours after he called out a reporter following Game 3 for even asking about the rumors he might leave College Station. Schlossnagle appeared he wouldn’t go anywhere after that type of answer.

But instead, he left for Austin and Kanell teed off on Sirius XM’s College Sports Radio.

“This is an awful look for Schlossnagle,” Kanell said. “I thought he handled this as bad as you can handle this. There’s a way to go about things in life. You know, there’s ways to handle media, ways to handle adversity. His answer Dusty, he insulted the reporter for asking the question and you can’t really see it. When we listen to it, he walked off the stage. He did a mic drop after he said ‘write that’ and got up and walked off. There’s something about character that goes on here.”

There’s no question there was criticism thrown out there for the way Schlossnagle handled the moment. Kanell even suggested what the coach could’ve said during the press conference.

“All you have to say, all you have to say, and we’ve talked about this a lot because we have a lot of coaches in this situation, ‘I don’t want to talk about that right now,’” Kanell said. “‘We just lost a title. I want to go talk to my team. I don’t want to talk about that. I am not going to address that question.’ That’s all you have to say. ‘I understand you want to ask it but I am not going to answer it.’ 

“And like I don’t know what is so complicated about this. Instead, you look like a liar. You look deceitful. You look selfish, and it is all warranted because you got up there and tried to take this high road and insulted the guy for doing his job and said you made all these sacrifices, and you lied. You lied to the media. You lied to your fan base. And ultimately you lied to your players.” 

Here’s what Schlossnagle said, in part:

“I think it’s pretty selfish of you to ask me that question, to be honest with you,” Schlossnagle said following the game. “I left my family to be the coach at Texas A&M. I took the job at Texas A&M to never take another job again, and that hasn’t changed in my mind. That’s unfair to talk about something like that.”

As Kanell put it, if you’re ever going to criticize players this day and age, hold coaches like Schlossnagle to the same standard.

“Like that to me is an awful look, and I don’t know Jim Schlossnagle and I’m sure he’s a good guy. And I’m hoping this was a heat of the moment, he didn’t want to talk about it,” Kanell said. “But if I’m gonna criticize kids for bat flipping and celebrating and keeping their emotions and letting them get the best of them, you better believe you have to hold the coaches to the same standard. 

“How many times do we crush kids for flipping commitments and you know, making immature decisions? This was handled as poorly as you can handle it. He knows this question is coming. I mean, his PR guy comes up, the SID comes up and says, hey, they knew this in the middle of the day. It’s been circling all day. And this was your plan to go emphatically scorched earth on the guy who asked the question? I think it’s a horrible look for Schlossnagle.”