Texas A&M volleyball's NCAA Tournament run came to an end on Friday night as the Aggies dropped a five-set heartbreaker to Wisconsin in the Sweet 16. Back from Lincoln, head coach Jamie Morrison joined TexAgs Live to reflect on his second season in Aggieland and more.
Key notes from Jamie Morrison interview
- One of my missions was to get people interested in volleyball. One of my biggest reasons for coming here was the 12th Man. They love Texas A&M, and I love our sport. We have so many high-energy moments. You get to see the connections between athletes between after every point. I love volleyball, and I wanted a place where that could spread. I’m really, really proud of what we did on the court this year and what you’re talking about. So many people came up to me to tell me they had never been to a volleyball match before this year, and now they keep coming back.
- I was in tears after the match, but it was less about losing. It was about our girls fighting and not getting the result that they wanted. There was one little bounce, but that’s our game. It’s the technique of golf with the athleticism of basketball. One of our core tenets is to put on a show. We want us to be entertaining. I don’t know if there could have been a more dramatic ebb and flow over the two-and-a-half hours. I’m really, really proud of our girls. They bought into being a team, and you could really see it over the last four or five weeks.
- We’re ahead of schedule. I took over the program, and this is a storied program. We now have nine Sweet 16 appearances. It has been a perennial tournament team and a perennial Sweet 16 team. My first goal was to get it back there. People are talking about A&M volleyball in this state right now. It has upped the brand. Our next step is an Elite Eight and then a Final Four. I’m proud of our girls, our fans and our donors for how they’ve stepped up. We’re setting up to be a really good volleyball team for years to come.
- Times have changed, but if you look at how we got here, it’s through developing athletes and human beings. There are other programs that are grabbing a player for one year. I love developing culture, humans and volleyball players. I don’t want to rely on the transfer portal. I want to rely on developing the talent we have here unless we absolutely need something.
- I have an amazing staff that can develop a lot of talent in our program. We need the right human beings, and that’s what we’re looking for. There is obviously a talent piece that comes with it.
- I want to give thanks to our 2025 recruiting class that’s coming in. When we beat Florida last year, my first text was to them to thank them for believing in this before we had the proof. Now, we have the proof. We get more interest as we get more successful. I can get on the phone with club directors, and they see the development. Talking to recruits right now, they can see the way we’re playing. They see our grit and how we interact. Those are the things that are really amazing.
- This group was really dialed in across the board. Looking at the future, the future is really, really bright for them.
- What holiday? The rules and the calendar of this need to change for the athletes and the coaches because the transfer portal opens during the Sweet 16 run. There is a dead period that begins on Thursday, so there is a rush to get people here if they want to see it. I’m also going to the Final Four in Louisville to put on a development thing with USA Volleyball. After that, I hope to sleep because some people are coming into town for Christmas. We’ll have a nice Christmas with presents under the tree for my daughter.
- The hard part is that you need to get the athletes into school, so I know that the portal window has to be now. I want to keep education a major piece of this. There are some solutions to it, and we’ll have chats about it with the AVCA in Louisville.
- I wasn’t distraught. The players had smiles on their faces, and Ava Underwood even said that the future is bright. The players feel that. The volleyball community feels that. The entire nucleus of this team is coming back next year. In year two, I’m disappointed that we’re not going to the Elite Eight because we lost to Wisconsin in an epic volleyball match. If you had told me that two years ago, I would’ve told you that you were crazy.
