It's more what he didn't do.

He did not have his team ready to play bad/average teams.

We were the most "up and down" team that I've ever seen. That's good evidence that our staff did a poor job of staying focused.

We should have won every one of those games and the NM State and UTSA games. Those teams were not good.

Waited too long to figure out second base.

MagnumLoad said:

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Waited too long to figure out second base.

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And 1st

Didn't set the tone immediately after he was hired that he was the boss and not a friend. Didn't prepare on the off season for when that first pitch of the season was thrown.

This season was lost before it started.

ETA - I liked the hire and was excited about it. Seems like a great guy; I'm sad it didn't work out.

If injuries were the problem we would have performed better against weaker competition and worse against better competition. We didn't. The week to week inconsistency was mental. He didn't have his team locked in for the games they should have won but for tough games/series they were.

Clear issues in our fielding practice given how bad we were at it most of the time. Same goes for bunting and really hitting approach in general as we were all or nothing for the long ball.

Decision making was also lacking shown by kash staying in LF so long, pitching changes, pinch hit calls, & lineup construction but those can be excused as inexperienced coach blunders. I'd put his umpire interactions in this category as well. He repeatedly let opposing coaches work over crews while he stood mostly silent in the dugout.

Not all of these issues are directly on Earley, but ultimately he is responsible for how his staff & players perform.

When a ship runs aground. The admiral is relieved of his duties. Does the quartermaster and helmsman take some of the blame? Absolutely! But the person in charge of the command takes full responsibility.

This team had a lot more talent than their overall record. They severely underperformed. Earley needs to go. You can make excuses all you want

IMO game day coaching in baseball is the most difficult of college sports. What starting lineups, what pitches to throw to what batters, where to play each batter, hitting approach to each pitcher, exactly when to pull a starting pitcher, what reliever to use and exactly how long etc. There are a thousand in-game decisions that make up the direction and determine the outcome of each game. A previous coach of ours was exceptional at these in-game decisions and adjustments. You can debate the World Series finals last year I guess, but 99% of the time it seemed like he made the right decisions. Early may be better at relating to the players or some of the between games/offseason stuff I don't get to see but I feel like he has a heck of a long way to go to become an elite game day coach.

TAMU1990 said:

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We should have won every one of those games and the NM State and UTSA games. Those teams were not good.

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arent some people wanting the UTSA coach and arent they in the tourney asa two seed in Austin regional ?

For me it's the overall approach they've shown in hitting. I think an important part of what made the 2024 team so good was their ability to work counts and hardly ever let a pitcher off the hook. They routinely had the starter out of the game by the 5th inning, and then they could really go to work on the bullpen.
We look nothing like that this year. Bad at working counts, bad at laying off of junk pitches, and bad at situational hitting. I thought Earley would continue building on that great plate discipline we saw last year, but it was completely gone. If all that left with Schloss, I'm not sure what he was ever bringing to the table to begin with.

He lacked gameplan IMO. He was a players coach. Go and try and hit a bomb is what it felt like more often then not. Then when we were backed into playing small ball it felt as if we were unprepared.

I grew up watching Schloss's early years with frog ball. One of the most impressive coached baseball games I have ever witnessed is when the frogs took on SDST with a young pitcher named Steven Strasburg. They ended up getting their ass kicked but watching the frogs make a team wide concerted effort to run up his pitch count made me realize how much coaching matters at the college level. Schloss always said you just have to make the tourney and the season restarts in May. IMO we just were trying to make it to the post season and Earley didnt realize the inning by inning chess match that is college baseball. If Strasburg faced this aggie lineup the game would probably not make it past an hour and half as Earleys gameplan would be Kent/Sorrel/Jace hopefully will hit a bomb or at least thats how it felt this year.

For the record I hate Schloss and have followed him his whole career growing up in Fort Worth but hes a damn good coach who understands the intricacies of college ball. I want Earley to succeed but hes not ready for SEC baseball. He has to learn how to play chess first. Small ball wins championships at the college level

Wicked Good Ag said:

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TAMU1990 said:

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We should have won every one of those games and the NM State and UTSA games. Those teams were not good.

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arent some people wanting the UTSA coach and arent they in the tourney asa two seed in Austin regional ?

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The field is very weak this year. It's why A&M not making the field stinks. UTSA is one of the weakest 2's and the committee also likes to pair up regionals by distance when possible. That's why HCU is being sent there to be slaughtered.

I was at the game between A&M and UTSA. We did not play well and they aren't good. Everyone likes to point to UTSA beating tu and us on a Tuesday, but UTSA playing a regional with the weekend rotation is going to be different. They aren't going to score much off of tu's weekend rotation - just like they wouldn't score much off of our weekend rotation either.

Brauny has said last year team struck out more than this years team, but the difference was simple. We were more likely to be in pitchers counts most ABs. We were bad at pitch selection. Taking strikes and swinging in pitchers counts at balls.

pointer74 said:

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I agree with a lot of you guys assessment that coaching can effect how a team plays
And a lot of you have good examples

But this team isn't new to winning
They have been there and done that
They already know what it takes to get there

Coaching can't take that away….. hence why I don't think it's coaching IMO

I still think injuries killed this team, players getting drafted and then throw in a down year on a few players and this is what you get

Coaching can't fix that over night

I watched a lot of teams make bad plays and tons of mistakes and still make it into the tournament
But they were all mostly healthy

This team kicked butt down the stretch and showed me they were getting there $@! together at the end.
I saw a different team 2nd half of year and I attribute that to coaching….. if he really was a bad coach this team would have never made that run they did against those top teams and playing Texas as tight as they did

Excuse me we didn't kick any butts down the stretch we were downright awful and why we are discussing if he should be let go.

Last 4 conference series
0-3 vs tu, 2/3 vs LSU, 0-3 vs Mizzou, 1/3 vs Uga
3-9. Awful

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Ok like what? You offered up no instances of Earley's mistakes yet criticized everyone else who did. Which is what this thread is. Moron.

this does a better job of summarizing what i was trying to say earlier about being overindexed on analytics but not in a good way.

good analytics is saying yes walks are really one of the more important things you can do as a hitter. they tire the opposing pitcher out, causing him to leave earlier, get to the bullpen, which is traditionally weaker, and then by the late second and third games they are tired out and you have an advantage.

that is good analytics, but what you saw our team do was bad analytics which is launch angle etc. how many times did i hear the announcers say at home games earlier in the season on a loud out to the warning track, "well it was hit 102 mph so not much else he could do as the outfielder caught it."

what a load of crap.

pointer74 said:

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I agree with a lot of you guys assessment that coaching can effect how a team plays
And a lot of you have good examples

But this team isn't new to winning
They have been there and done that
They already know what it takes to get there

Coaching can't take that away….. hence why I don't think it's coaching IMO

I still think injuries killed this team, players getting drafted and then throw in a down year on a few players and this is what you get

Coaching can't fix that over night

I watched a lot of teams make bad plays and tons of mistakes and still make it into the tournament
But they were all mostly healthy

This team kicked butt down the stretch and showed me they were getting there $@! together at the end.
I saw a different team 2nd half of year and I attribute that to coaching….. if he really was a bad coach this team would have never made that run they did against those top teams and playing Texas as tight as they did

---

We finished SEC play 3-9, including getting swept by 0-24 Missouri

We didn't "kick" a damn thing down the stretch

TAMU1990 said:

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Wicked Good Ag said:

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TAMU1990 said:

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We should have won every one of those games and the NM State and UTSA games. Those teams were not good.

---

arent some people wanting the UTSA coach and arent they in the tourney asa two seed in Austin regional ?

---

The field is very weak this year. It's why A&M not making the field stinks. UTSA is one of the weakest 2's and the committee also likes to pair up regionals by distance when possible. That's why HCU is being sent there to be slaughtered.

I was at the game between A&M and UTSA. We did not play well and they aren't good. Everyone likes to point to UTSA beating tu and us on a Tuesday, but UTSA playing a regional with the weekend rotation is going to be different. They aren't going to score much off of tu's weekend rotation - just like they wouldn't score much off of our weekend rotation either.

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There RPI and record say they dont suck

The fact that they beat both us and Texas says something regardless of you thinking they were not good
And i dont think the field is weak at all this year it loos like a normal year with a few surprises that we dont typically see but that doesnt mean they dont have a good year

Their RPi is boosted by their wins over us and Texas. I know what I saw. This UTSA team was significantly worse than last year's team. For one, their best pitcher transferred to Texas and will probably be giving them a loss.

Check their schedule - 44 wins against primarily mid majors. Their only big wins were against us and tu. They lost to Baylor, TCU, DBU, Incarnate Word, and UTA. We run ruled Incarnate Word. They lost to Tulane in the conference tourney. The field is weak.

One of my reasonings is hitter approach. We swung at low and away pitches ALOT. Balls that aren't hittable. Stop chasing at anything low and away, and make the pitcher work for it.

Steals, we are 32-38. Why don't we steal more and break up double plays? Considering the team's speed, and how we continually hit into double plays.

Need to get better at pitch selection, stop swinging at garbage. I'll never understand why we watch high numbers pitches so much.

Finally, struggled to hit lefties with movement.

Pitching had some gaps, but was pretty consistent all season.

AggieTrainer said:

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For me it's the overall approach they've shown in hitting. I think an important part of what made the 2024 team so good was their ability to work counts and hardly ever let a pitcher off the hook. They routinely had the starter out of the game by the 5th inning, and then they could really go to work on the bullpen.
We look nothing like that this year. Bad at working counts, bad at laying off of junk pitches, and bad at situational hitting. I thought Earley would continue building on that great plate discipline we saw last year, but it was completely gone. If all that left with Schloss, I'm not sure what he was ever bringing to the table to begin with.

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I wonder how much of this was the Caleb Longley effect?

phatty26 said:

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Losing home games to NMSU, Mizzou, and Tx st, all dog poop teams.
Take those 5 losses away now we are 33-22, with an RPI of 30 or lower.

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The Mizzou series sealed our fate. Being swept by the worse team in the SEC did it.

We could have swept Georgia and it would not have mattered.

1) He treated his players as peers. Lack of accountability and fear factor as HC. HUGE MISTAKE.
2) His offense strategy, which he attempted to change mid-SEC, was horrible. Worked the players all off season to play barrell ball and rely solely on HRs. Players were after high exit velos and launch angles as the main metrics. Then good pitching game into play and players simply hit popups. Then we he tried changing batting approach and also adding bunts....most were not equipped to do.
3) Some dumbass calls on the field. Too many to list.
4) Guy had NO ANSWERS half the time and looked pretty lost when things were going bad.

All from ZERO experience. Earley may someday be a good HC but I do not see that at A&M as he needs several years to develop his trade. That will come at a major cost to our fans, recruiting, and our overall record.

Fact is....Earley should have made the tournament at the VERY least with this roster. And that should not have been a major challenge. And for that reason alone, he needs to be resended.

pointer74 said:

---

I agree with a lot of you guys assessment that coaching can effect how a team plays
And a lot of you have good examples

But this team isn't new to winning
They have been there and done that
They already know what it takes to get there

Coaching can't take that away….. hence why I don't think it's coaching IMO

I still think injuries killed this team, players getting drafted and then throw in a down year on a few players and this is what you get

Coaching can't fix that over night

I watched a lot of teams make bad plays and tons of mistakes and still make it into the tournament
But they were all mostly healthy

This team kicked butt down the stretch and showed me they were getting there $@! together at the end.
I saw a different team 2nd half of year and I attribute that to coaching….. if he really was a bad coach this team would have never made that run they did against those top teams and playing Texas as tight as they did

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Quote:

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I don't think it's coaching

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It's not coaching

Quote:

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I saw a different team 2nd half of year and I attribute that to coaching

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Oh wait it IS coaching

Quote:

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This team kicked butt down the stretch

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This team started SEC play 1-9, and ended 3-9, including getting swept at home by Missouri. That's an odd example of "kicking butt"

LOL, pretty funny post.

It's coaching when things go well but not coaching's fault when they go bad.

3-9 being his definition of kicking butt tells me all I need to know.

Those that keep harping on injuries are just flat out clueless. t.u. lost their Friday night ace and finished 1st in conference. Other schools lost key players as well. It comes with the territory in a 50 game season.

Sorrell and Grahovac are not Willie Mays and Babe Ruth.

This team finished 14th of 16 in conference. Thats not injuries.

This team finished with 50 in RPI. Thats not injuries.

This team was swept with the season on the line by a team with a team ERA of 9.19. Thats not injuries.

So quit with the injuries. It was not the reason we were so bad. Focus on guys who had their worst season as college baseball players like Jace, Kent, Schott, Kash, Galloway, and others and ask yourself why did so many guys have their worst season all at the same time.

Agryan00 said:

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Those that keep harping on injuries are just flat out clueless. t.u. lost their Friday night ace and finished 1st in conference. Other schools lost key players as well. It comes with the territory in a 50 game season.

Sorrell and Grahovac are not Willie Mays and Babe Ruth.

This team finished 14th of 16 in conference. Thats not injuries.

This team finished with 50 in RPI. Thats not injuries.

This team was swept with the season on the line by a team with a team ERA of 9.19. Thats not injuries.

So quit with the injuries. It was not the reason we were so bad. Focus on guys who had their worst season as college baseball players like Jace, Kent, Schott, Kash, Galloway, and others and ask yourself why did so many guys have their worst season all at the same time.

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You know they haven't been good since he went down, right? They had to fight tooth and nail to sweep us in 3 one run games, and we weren't exactly a good team.

They only won the conference because they had such a big lead over everyone else before he went down.

The players never saw Earley through the same lens that they saw Schloss, it's that simple. It's pretty common knowledge that Schloss is extremely demanding and can be a total A-hole, which is why he wins consistently. We can talk about batting approach, fielding errors, lack of focus until we are blue in the face. It all boils down to the players did not respond to Earley the same way they responded to Schloss.... In Earley's defense, he had no chance, your first head job is in the SEC without putting the time in a lower league to gain experience. And on top of that, you had to follow a top 3 active coach in college baseball. Coaches still win or lose games based on how players respond to their coaching and demands. That is where the rubber meets the road, bottom line....
Just my humble opinion.

rgag12 said:

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Agryan00 said:

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Those that keep harping on injuries are just flat out clueless. t.u. lost their Friday night ace and finished 1st in conference. Other schools lost key players as well. It comes with the territory in a 50 game season.

Sorrell and Grahovac are not Willie Mays and Babe Ruth.

This team finished 14th of 16 in conference. Thats not injuries.

This team finished with 50 in RPI. Thats not injuries.

This team was swept with the season on the line by a team with a team ERA of 9.19. Thats not injuries.

So quit with the injuries. It was not the reason we were so bad. Focus on guys who had their worst season as college baseball players like Jace, Kent, Schott, Kash, Galloway, and others and ask yourself why did so many guys have their worst season all at the same time.

---

You know they haven't been good since he went down, right? They had to fight tooth and nail to sweep us in 3 one run games, and we weren't exactly a good team.

They only won the conference because they had such a big lead over everyone else before he went down.

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I agree with some of what you said.

They were benefactors of a vey nice SEC schedule. I think this has more to do with their drop off than just one injury. They also got one of their best bats back during their bad stretch at the end.

They also were not picked to be anywhere close to winning the SEC and ending up the number 2 seed.

I think they will win their regional. Not sure on the SR bc I do not know anything about UCLA. If they were matched with a SEC team my thoughts are they would not make the CWS at this time.

School in Austin has the #4 RPI. They won the SEC. Their schedule may have been light but regardless they won the SEC. Don't give a crap how light it is. They still had the most wins which is not easy. Ags got swept them didn't they.

Plus its going to be fun the next couple of years as Schloss actually builds that program and gets his recruits. We will be watching t.u. as one of the top teams in Omaha on regular basis as Ags just hope to make Omaha once every couple of years. Hats off to an AD department that is very lost.

I'm not sure what you are jabbering about. I was talking to the guy on the reason they fell off at the end.

And I'm not interested in hearing Ags prop the horns. You want to do it. So be it. Just direct it to others.

If you're arguing we should have kept Schloss…that shipped sailed…

dcg4403 said:

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1) He treated his players as peers. Lack of accountability and fear factor as HC. HUGE MISTAKE.
2) His offense strategy, which he attempted to change mid-SEC, was horrible. Worked the players all off season to play barrell ball and rely solely on HRs. Players were after high exit velos and launch angles as the main metrics. Then good pitching game into play and players simply hit popups. Then we he tried changing batting approach and also adding bunts....most were not equipped to do.
3) Some dumbass calls on the field. Too many to list.
4) Guy had NO ANSWERS half the time and looked pretty lost when things were going bad.

All from ZERO experience. Earley may someday be a good HC but I do not see that at A&M as he needs several years to develop his trade. That will come at a major cost to our fans, recruiting, and our overall record.

Fact is....Earley should have made the tournament at the VERY least with this roster. And that should not have been a major challenge. And for that reason alone, he needs to be resended.

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Live and die by the HR. That is 100% on Longley. Why do i say? Bc that is exactly what he did for the sips. Averages were always garbage, but they hit some bombs. Still say one of the most underated changes they made was swapping Tulo for Longley.

pointer74 said:

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...

This team kicked butt down the stretch and showed me they were getting there $@! together at the end.
I saw a different team 2nd half of year and I attribute that to coaching….. if he really was a bad coach this team would have never made that run they did against those top teams and playing Texas as tight as they did

---

Mizzou...swept us...at home...and we had a combined 4 hits and 2 runs against a 9+ ERA team in our last 2 games. We had 4 series sweeps 2 of which were home. Our home record was 21-13. The team showed fight during the SEC tournament probably because they knew they had to make the tournament if Earley wanted to keep his job. Where was this all the previous season? I stand by that Earley let them buy their own BS that they could cake walk through the season. If he returns he at least has the ability to not be their friends anymore because they failed. If its another HC, whoever stays knows they cannot eat any of the rat poison about next year, because if we retain Gavin and Caden, and gain a decent transfer portal player (which we seem to do every year now) then we will again be a preseason top 10 team.