Jace LaViolette announces return as Lord Tubbington's reign continues

On Tuesday morning, All-American slugger Jace LaViolette announced that he'll be running it back in Maroon & White for the 2025 campaign under Michael Earley. In an exclusive interview, "Lord Tubbington" took us inside that decision, his excitement over the Earley hire and more.

Key notes from Jace LaViolette interview

• It all starts with that final game in Omaha. You have a dream as a kid, and you want to be playing in that. To get to play in that game and then lose the game, it was probably the hardest day in this team’s life. Honestly. There were guys in the locker room who called it the hardest day of their lives. You play from the time you’re three or four, and you work your tail off to be in the final game of the Men’s College World Series. You made it. You hadn’t made it all the way, and then you lose. It sucks. You come home, and you’re expecting everything to be all good. I’d say my whole world flipped upside down in the snap of a finger. Everything changed. You’re like, “What just happened?” It was two terrible days back to back.
   
• I fought my tail off to get Michael Earley back here. The whole team wanted him back here. We knew who we wanted to play for. We knew the man that Mike is. He’s the best coach in the nation. The thing I love most about him is the man and father that he is. You see him at the presser, looking down at his kids to make sure they’re OK. In that moment, when everybody has their eyes on you and are cheering you on, it goes a long way to see that he’s checking on how his family is doing. It will be more of, “How are the boys doing? Are the boys OK?” The coaching will take care of itself. He’s unbelievable, and the support staff he brought in is top-notch. Some of the best coaches in the nation are coming here to support us and be in front of the 12th Man. I’m really excited.
   
• I called Trev Alberts one last time before I went fishing with my family in Louisiana. I said, “Hey, sorry for bugging you.” I knew he was one of the busiest men on the planet and was doing his best to find the best coach for the job, but I said, “Mike Earley is the best coach in the nation, I promise you. If you get this guy, you get every single person you want back here.” I think all the dominos are falling into place, and I wholeheartedly believe that Earley is and will be the best coach in college baseball for a long time.
   
• I’m stoked that this is his first head coaching job ever. I don’t want people to be scared of that. I feel like he has been a head coach without being a head coach for the past three years. People don’t understand how much work that guy puts in. He’s there before any of us get to the field every day, and he’s probably the last one to leave. It’s because he cares about us so much. I can text him throughout the year and say that my swing is feeling off, and he’s immediately looking at video and will do that for like two hours to figure it out. He will nit-pick things to figure out what we’re doing.
   
• Earley really is the best guy suited for this job, and that last call to Alberts, he was like, “We’re going to see what happens and do our best for y’all, but we’ve got to make sure this is the best hire because they had to listen to him.” I knew it was a business, and he had to make the right hire for the team and himself. I told him I wanted to stay here and be an Aggie for life.
   
• I never wanted to leave this place, and I hope people know that. Sometimes you have to do things in life. With some of us entering the portal, in five years, nobody will be talking about that. Right now, it felt like the biggest thing ever, and for a bit, it was.
   
• I never had any intentions of leaving this place. I never talked to another coach while I was in the portal. The most important thing to me was listening to whoever got hired and hearing them out. It’s only fair. I pride myself on trying to be a great man. At the end of the day, who cares if you’re a great baseball player? I’d rather be known as a great man who is truthful and not lying to people. I want people to say I was a great baseball player but an even better man.
   
• Everybody was saying that we didn’t get time to celebrate. We did. We celebrated as a team, and that’s all we needed. We could see and feel the support from the 12th Man. They poured as much heart and soul into this year as we did probably. They came to every possible game and always tried to sell out the stadium. It was incredible. It was the best year of college baseball, and the best season I could have hoped for. At the end of the day, what do we win? First loser? Who is happy about that? I wasn’t. It’s cool to say you were one of the final two teams there, but we didn’t win it. What is there to celebrate? It’s an accomplishment to be the furthest an A&M team has ever gotten, and I’m not saying we shouldn’t celebrate it. I have a fire lit under my butt to win this thing next year, and I told Earley that I don’t ever want to feel that feeling ever again. I want to be the last team standing, and that’s it. The time to celebrate is after you win the whole damn thing.
   
• I’m going to get that picture of me and Hayden Schott on the field after Game 3 printed out and framed. I need it for motivation.
   
• I don’t want anybody to hate me for saying this, but it’s time to move on. It’s time to put it behind us. We’ve got coaches here that are going to stay here for a very long time. At the end of the day, it sucks, but Jim Schlossnagle has a life too. He treated me amazingly while he was here, and I’m not going to bash him. He has a life and a family and things he wants to pursue in the game of baseball, but at the end of the day, it’s time to put it past us. He accomplished things that had never been accomplished here. You could say thank you, but you can still be mad. I’m not saying I’m not mad at him because, of course, I am. It sucks. It hurts. It’s his life too, and it sucks for all of us. If the players have put it behind us, then everyone else can too. I’ve seen some things said about him that aren’t OK. I love our fans and how much this means to them, but he’s a person too. I bet this was so tough on him too, but he’s not allowed to say it. At the end of the day, it’s time to put it behind us and reflect on the great years we’ve had.
   
• People are going to say things because they’re so invested in this thing, and it would suck more if people weren’t so invested in it. Let’s put a bow on it, tie it up and put it away forever.
   
• I give all credit to Earley, Alberts and General Mark A. Welsh III for how I feel the way I do and how I’m able to come up here and say what I said because Alberts told me many times that he’d never bash that guy. I agreed. Earley said the same thing yesterday and told us it was time to move on because he did things for him and us that helped us out a lot. I feel the same way. I think everybody does. Not one of them has said one bad thing about Schlossnagle ever. I think that’s where the team is at. There is no reason to bash someone for making a life decision.
   
• I have had conversations with people at this university that I never expected to speak with. I met Mr. Alberts a few times, but it was normal, “Hi, I’m Jace LaViolette. It’s nice to meet you.” As this is happening, I’m calling him, and we’re talking like two normal people. It was pretty cool, and he was genuinely listening. The same can be said about General Welsh. They were genuinely sitting there and trying to listen and hear me out to try and make a decision. That’s all I could ask. They gave me more than enough room to speak my mind. I think they know what’s best for this university.
   
• The introductory press conference and the crowd was incredible. I walked in and was like, “Whoa.” I texted Earley after because it was one of the coolest things I’ve been a part of. I’m so happy for him and his family. Now, let’s go get it done.
   
• Did you see how much cake there was? I had never seen a cake that looked like that. It was super cool. It was shaped like Blue Bell Park. I had a huge piece of cake in my hand. It was hilarious.
   
• I can’t really say what I’m trying to do in recruiting, but I’m trying to get people here and will do everything in my power. That’s something that comes with the territory and today’s game. Give your best word, and that’s something I tried to do in the video that I posted. I wholeheartedly believe that Michael Earley is the best coach in the nation, and there is nowhere I’d rather be than play under him at Texas A&M. I want people to see that and give this a shot. When they talk to him, they’ll go, “Oh, wow.” I had that post saying there was nowhere else you’d rather play than here, and I felt bad having to take that down. I am always trying to throw out things to get people here and get people to understand what it’s like to play Texas A&M baseball at the best institution in the nation. I want people to understand that there’s no better place.
   
• I cried when I heard Earley got the job. I don’t think people understand how much he means to us and me. It’s real. I think people are about to see the most fire out of a baseball team that they’ve ever seen. You’ll also see the most fun from a team ever. This coaching staff that we have here is all about getting the work done, but once it comes to game time, they understand. Earley, Will Fox and Caleb Longley have played at some of the highest levels. They’ve been through this, and they understand the importance of playing loose and having fun. They don’t want us to play scared or tight. They want us to act like we’re the best and have fun. That was Earley’s biggest point to me. He said we’re going to have a lot of fun this year, but we’re also going to get some things done. I know we will. I’m excited.
   
• I felt horrible for getting in the portal. It sucks because I knew I never wanted to leave, but to have people question you sucks. I didn’t think about it too much because I knew I really wanted to be that. I think people will understand, especially after this. I think everything has turned out exactly how we wanted, and maybe even better.
   
• I don’t think people got to see the true Braden Montgomery because of how much he wanted to be great and how much he prepared before the games. I try to play loose all the time and have as much fun as possible because I know this isn’t a given. All of us want to be great, but Montgomery was always trying to lock in. He would talk about having five at-bats today and wanting five homers. I wouldn’t talk to him much during games because he was so locked in. I think he had one of the best years Aggie baseball has ever seen, and it was so much fun to watch that kid play. I wish he could come back for another year, but he’s going to go chase his dream. Nobody can hate him for that, so it’s going to be so much fun to watch him do his thing.
   
• I’ll look back on this season in a year or two and go, “Wow.” I don’t want to go through that feeling ever again. I want to lift that trophy up at the end of the year, and then we can truly celebrate. That’s my main goal. That’s the goal of everybody who has ever played college sports. When we lost that game, I got back on that bus going, “This ain’t ever happening again. We’re going to get back and win the whole dang thing. Let’s get working on this now.” We went through a weird stretch of a week, and now we’re back.
   
• Robbing that home run was actually unbelievable. I got a terrible read on that ball off the bat. I recorrected myself, but I looked down at the fence. I jumped up and prayed. I made the catch, threw it in and went a little crazy in the outfield. I love to show my emotions when I play, and I love to play with emotion. The one against Tennessee, where I absolutely smacked the wall, I started laughing at myself. It would’ve been cool if I could have made two catches like that.
   
• I want to give credit to that Tennessee team. They were unbelievable to play against, and they were unbelievable to get to know. They loved to talk on the field and get to know you. It was a cool experience, and I just want to congratulation them on the unbelievable year that they had.
   
• After we lost, Blake Burke was supposed to be partying, but he called over to me and said, “Jace, I love you, buddy.” We talk still, and that’s a really cool thing college baseball does for you. We get to meet people on other teams that I’ll probably be friends with for the rest of my life. Same with Christian Moore, too. I’ll never forget that moment with Burke because he took the time out of his own celebration to tell me I did a great job. It was awesome.
   
• Tennessee played with a fire that’s always lit, and it’s a cool thing to watch. I felt like it was the same way with us. Those were two of the best teams in the country, and we made some of the best games you could ever hope to watch in a Men’s College World Series Finals. I was blessed to be a part of that. I thank God for that. There are times that you have to give praise to your Lord and Savior for putting you in good positions in life. Even though it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to, He still put us in a very, very unbelievable position and let us play in front of 26,000 people. It’s an unbelievable thing to be a part of. Nobody’s perfect. There was only one perfect man on this earth, and He died on the cross.
   
• A Morgan Wallen song called “The 2024 Vols” or something like that? That would’ve been cool, but now, he’s going to write about them winning. It will probably be a really, really good song for them. It’ll be something crazy. We need to get on Twitter and have him write a song about that series. We’ll just listen to it before every game for motivation. I won’t change my walk-up song, though. I’ll stick with the money and stick with what works.
   
• I love Schott, and I love his walk-up song, too. Still, he could have something that gets people like, “Alright, this guy’s nuts.” I loved his song, and it fit him so much. Still, I want to see him throw a little spice in there. I want to see something crazy.