Augie Garrido saw something in Jim Schlossnagle, who now occupies Garrido's former role as head coach of the Longhorns

Augie Garrido envisioned something like this happening.

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Could the five-time national champion have seen Texas taking the head coach of the Texas A&M baseball program barely a day after the Aggies fell just short in the championship series in Omaha? Probably not.

But Garrido, who won the 2002 and 2005 national championships at Texas, likely saw Jim Schlossnagle soaring to some of the greatest heights of the sport and taking over a premier head coaching job. As was revealed Wednesday, he may have even seen Schlossnagle take over the job in Austin.

While few, even Garrido, could have predicted the circumstances, Schlossnagle now holds the job Garrido excelled in for over two decades.

“Coach Garrido in the last five or six years of his career, treated me at TCU as if I was one of his former players or coaches,” Schlossnagle said at his introductory press conference. “He was a great mentor. We actually had a lot of conversations about this position, and I miss him dearly.”

Schlossnagle, a native of Maryland, a graduate of Elon in North Carolina, and previously head coach at UNLV, TCU, and Texas A&M, was introduced as the 14th head coach in the history of Texas baseball on Wednesday. Garrido, who passed away in 2018, was the 12th man to hold that same role.

Garrido had plenty of wisdom accumulated from decades spent building a program at Cal State-Fullerton and restoring Texas to powerhouse status. But nobody, not even the man who would bunt Babe Ruth, could have prepared Schlossnagle for what came his way on Wednesday.

Forty-eight hours after providing a heated answer to a question about his future at A&M, members of the Texas A&M beat made the short drive from Bryan-College Station to Austin for Schlossnagle’s side of the exit story. That’s not typical for introductory press conferences. Usually the questions are from local media members asking about vision, influences, and accolades. Those were a part of Wednesday’s festivities, but after Schlossnagle’s now infamous-in-Aggieland response, A&M-centric media made sure to drive west for their pound of flesh.

Schlossnagle attempted to smooth things over with the reporter who asked the question in Omaha, though he was not present in Austin.

“I wish I could have answered that better,” Schlossnagle said. “But in the moment, 30 minutes after the last pitch all I could think about was our players. I wasn’t really in the mood to talk about myself or the future. So, I apologize for that to Richard (Zane).”

Schlossnagle had to navigate that process himself.

In the rest of his time at Texas? He’ll lean on some lessons learned from Garrido.

“(Garrido) pulled me aside during a rain delay and said ‘I want you to come see me this summer,'” Schlossnagle said about a mid-2010s Texas series with TCU. “During recruiting season, I was in California. I flew to the Orange County airport. Augie picked me up. We had a great dinner as he loved great food and drink. We had a long conversation about his future and what it was like to be the baseball coach at Texas.”

What was said over dinner between the two coaches had an effect on Schlossnagle, who at that point had found success at TCU in the Big 12 and earned the program’s first trip to Omaha via a Super Regional win in Austin. He’ll use lessons picked up throughout his career as head coach of the Longhorns. But what Garrido told him over that dinner will resonate most in a job he never really thought he’d have.

“I’ll never say that there was any place that’s ever been my dream job,” Schlossnagle said. “I’ve loved every single place that I’ve ever been. As an assistant coach, to be real frank with you, my dream job was to be the coach at TCU because I felt like that program had the most space to grow. I’m from Western Maryland. I never envisioned that I would get to be the coach at Texas A&M or the University of Texas. I only ever saw those things on TV.”

How did that dream come to fruition? Schlossnagle credited the alignment seen at Texas for starters. As is common at big University of Texas occasions, UT System board of regents chairman Kevin Eltife, UT-Austin president Jay Hartzell, and Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte all were in attendance and offered comments.

The last speaker and the man who lured and introduced Schlossnagle was the most pivotal of the three in the process. Schlossnagle and Del Conte worked together for over a decade at TCU, elevating the Horned Frog baseball program into an Omaha regular.

The trust the two share stands as reason No. 1 why Schlossnagle was introduced as the Longhorns head coach on Wednesday after three successful seasons in College Station.

“There wasn’t anybody at Texas A&M that I couldn’t trust,” Schlossnagle said. “I just know that I can trust Chris.”

Whatever successes Texas has under Schlossnagle, who has won everywhere he’s been, are likely to be the result of support from Del Conte and Texas. But somewhere along the way, Schlossnagle will use something learned from Garrido, the last coach to win a national title in baseball at Texas.

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A rain delay gave him the opportunity for that lesson. Now, in Garrido’s former job, Schlossnagle will look to bring about a bright future at Texas.