\nThese are clearly the three most important sports for the money-making side of things. The richest athletics programs are often the best at football. If not, it\u2019s because they are a basketball blue blood. Baseball ties it all together.<\/p>\n
We know about Del Conte\u2019s success with his football hire, choosing Steve Sarkisian in 2021 to be the next head coach of Longhorn football. Sark\u2019s been one of the best coaches in the sport since then. Just seven teams have more wins over that time, and he\u2019s done more in the College Football Playoff than most on that list.<\/p>\n
At worst, Sarkisian has brought the program back to national relevance, is a tremendous acquirer of talent, and has all the building blocks to eventually take Texas back to the national championship. Only a fool would criticize that hire.<\/p>\n
But the past two years are where Del Conte has done his best work.<\/p>\n
Last year, Del Conte went back to his TCU roots to call on an old friend, Jim Schlossnagle, to take over a struggling but historically elite baseball program on the 40 Acres.<\/p>\n
Since then, Schlossnagle has won an SEC regular-season title and hosted a regional, as well as being the best team in the SEC to start this year. Any college baseball coaching ranking that doesn\u2019t have him as one of the five best in the sport is incorrect.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s Sean Miller, clearly the least flashy of the three.<\/p>\n
Texas basketball is in a very different spot, historically and resource-wise, than the other two programs, which made Miller\u2019s addition unique. Del Conte couldn\u2019t go out and get a flashy name like Schlossnagle or Sarkisian at the top of the coaching search board. UNC will have its pick of the litter this offseason if Hubert Davis is fired. Texas doesn\u2019t have that luxury.<\/p>\n
But a year later, on the anniversary of Miller\u2019s hiring, he has the Longhorns in the Sweet Sixteen\u2014just the second time in 18 years.<\/p>\n
A somewhat unremarkable hire that has already far exceeded expectations in year one.<\/p>\n
If you weigh these coaching hires out, you see some pretty cool stats.<\/p>\n
Since 2021, here\u2019s a list of active coaches who have won 45 games (nine per year) and made multiple College Football Playoffs:<\/p>\n
Kirby Smart
Ryan Day
Curt Cignetti
Kalen DeBoer
Dan Lanning
Steve Sarkisian<\/strong><\/p>\nPretty good company, and just two other SEC head coaches. One of six in the nation, one of three in the SEC.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s talk baseball.<\/p>\n
Just two teams made Omaha from the SEC last year: LSU and Arkansas.<\/p>\n
Outside of those two established programs, no other coach has the track record of Jim Schlossnagle in his 1+ years:
SEC regular-season championship in 2025
Top-five team in 2026
64\u201317 overall record<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd as for basketball, it would be a bit disingenuous to call Miller a top-five coach in the conference already, but Texas is just one of four SEC teams in the Sweet Sixteen, along with Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee.<\/p>\n
Sure, Florida was clearly a better team in 2026, and Vanderbilt won the SEC tournament, but Texas is probably the sixth-best team in the SEC in Miller\u2019s first year. That\u2019s really notable.<\/p>\n
Just by basic dives into these three coaches, Texas has a top-three coach in football and baseball in the SEC, and one in the 6\u20138 range in just his first year in men\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n
Not to mention, CDC was the one to hire Vic Schaefer in 2020, whose Longhorns women\u2019s basketball team is in the Sweet Sixteen and is one of the favorites to win it all.<\/p>\n
Mike White was hired in 2018, and his softball team is No. 2 in the nation.<\/p>\n
He pulled the Nick Saban of swimming to the program after the departure of a Hall of Fame coach just two years ago.<\/p>\n
He created a sport out of the blue in beach volleyball and has them as one of the best in the nation within three years of inception.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s tennis, track and field, women\u2019s golf\u2014even the new soccer coach has some promise.<\/p>\n
Del Conte doesn\u2019t want any of his programs lagging behind, and he\u2019ll be aggressive in replacing coaches who aren\u2019t living up to expectations. Just look at the top three programs, or soccer.<\/p>\n
After a weekend like the one Texas just had, with both basketball teams advancing to the Sweet Sixteen and a pair of giant series wins from bat-and-ball sports, it\u2019s good to remember the man behind the success of this athletic program.<\/p>\n
This is not a fluke\u2014Del Conte has Texas athletics in its best place since the middle of the 2000s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few individuals in college sports are better at their job than Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte. [Sign…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":677006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,1718,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-677005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-regwall","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116280994437664410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}