Jim Schlossnagle Excited About Coaching Reunion vs. His Former Player

When you have been a head coach as long as Jim Schlossnagle has, you're bound to have a couple of former assistants and even players rise to become head coaches one day.

Schlossnagle, who has been a head baseball coach since 2002, has had a couple jump into the head-coaching ranks with varying success.

The one that stands out is Tony Vitello, the former Tennessee head coach and current manager of the San Fransico Giants, who served as an assistant under Schlossnagle at TCU from 2011-2013.

Vitello made the rare jump to the MLB from the college game before the start of the 2026 season, allowing former TCU catcher Josh Elander to be promoted as head coach of the Volunteers.

This weekend will be the second time Schlossnagle will face off against one of his former players as opposing head coaches.

“Looking forward to see Josh [Elander], excited to see him and his wife,” Schlossnagle said. “I had been fortunate enough to recruit him.”

Reunion On The Diamond

When Elander was named the 26th head baseball coach for Tennessee, he became the second former Schlossnagle player to become a head coach, joining Texas State’s Steven Trout.

In nine games facing Trout, Schlossnagle has gotten the better of his former player eight out of the nine games, the only loss coming last season in early April for the Longhorns' fourth of the season.

Coming out of Round Rock High School, Elander was able to be lured away from bigger programs like Texas A&M to TCU, which was still in the Mountain West Conference but was a growing powerhouse in the college baseball circuit.

“Recruiting was a challenge because we were in the Mountain West Conference at the time, and he's from Round Rock. I know Texas A&M, maybe Texas, but I know it came down to A&M and TCU,” Schlossnagle said. “I remember doing some home visits with him, and just felt like he had a chance to be a great player, which he was, for us.”

As a freshman at TCU, Elander was an instant impact player for the 2010 squad that beat Texas in the Austin Super Regional for Schlossnagle and the program’s first appearance in Omaha.

Seeing one of his players he recruited, now becoming a head coach at a major program, was always in the cards for Elander in his former head coach's mind.

“He was always mature beyond his years,” Schlossnagle said. “He's very level headed, he's energetic but not overemotional. So you can see him have the temperament to be super successful at anything, but especially as a coach.”

Elander has had big shoes to fill — under Vitello, the Voulenteers saw their best stretch in program history, going 341-131 in his eight years in Knoxville.

The first-year head coach has had an up and down start to his coaching career; in conference play, Tennessee has just won three conference series and is coming off a series loss to Kentucky this past weekend.

Texas will face the Tennessee Volunteers for the first time in program history Friday at 5:30 p.m. CT at Lindsey Nelson Field in Knoxville.

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