Jim Schlossnagle looking to usher in another era of dominant Texas pitching

Texas Longhorns baseball is a program known for its dominance on the mound, and the first year of the Jim Schlossnagle era saw a much needed return to the days of Texas pitching glory. Largely based off the efforts of pitching coach Max Weiner, nearly every pitcher who pitched in both 2024 and 2025 saw improvement in their ERA during their first campaign with Weiner. Likely suffering just a few losses to the MLB draft and portal, Texas looks to repeat with one of the best pitching staffs in the nation in 2026.

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Texas fans have been downright spoiled rotten when it comes to fielding a top pitching team in the nation. From 2003 to 2013 the Longhorns averaged a national rank of No. 16 in ERA over that 11 year stretch. 2025 was the first season since 2011 that Texas not only finished top 5 in the nation in ERA, H/9, and WHIP, but also top 40 in K/9 and BB/9 as well.

Ranks are from end of regular season (pre-conference tournament)
ERA – earned run average
H/9 – hits per nine innings
WHIP – walks+hits/innings pitched
K/9 – strikeouts per nine innings
W/9 or BB/9 – walks (bases on balls) per nine innings

This is just looking at Texas in the 21st century, the pitching under Cliff Gustafson was the true Texas heyday on the mound. If you were to look at the individual season records, the pitching category is filled with records from players from the 1970s and 1980s. Many of them will likely stand forever. With pitchers like Kirk Dressendorfer, Roger Clemens, Greg Swindell, Calvin Schiraldi, and Richard Wortham just to name a few, it would be asinine to talk about Texas pitching greatness and not bring up the 1970s-80s. It’s a shame detailed stats don’t go back further.

Back to the modern day. Of the five pitchers to return, the only pitcher who didn’t improve statistically was Andre Duplantier II. He was one or two loud outs away from making it so every pitcher improved under Weiner.

Positive numbers are improvements.

However most of the reason Texas saw an uptick in pitching stats in 2025 came from a change in personnel. Texas brought in a number of impact transfers to bolster the staff with six pitchers coming in, as well as four talented freshmen pitchers. It was more than just adding in new arms. Sure, novelty helped but it only paints part of the picture.

Of those ten new arms that Texas used in 2025, it is an extremely realistic possibility that Jared Spencer is the only premium arm we will not see return in 2026. He’s out of eligibility, as is Duplantier II.

When you look at the pitching staffs that Schlossnagle has overseen as a head coach, you realize that he places a premium on not only talented arms but talented coaching. Another thing that stands out is how prior to Texas, Weiner immediately impacted the Texas A&M baseball team. He took their team ERA from No. 125 to No. 6.

Here’s a look at Schlossnagle’s pitching stats over his career as a head coach.

To remain this consistent is just downright impressive and is a strong sign that the 2025 season was just the beginning of a dominant Schlossnagle era of Texas Longhorn pitching.

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Texas is looking to build off of a fantastic year pitching while likely only losing two arms. The Longhorns have already added an impact arm in Luke Dotson, and will likely add some more luxury arms from the portal as well. There are prospects with the capability to be program defining arms in the incoming class. With continuity at an all-time high, the Longhorns are well on their way back to being the dominant pitching staff that the fans have grown to expect.