If Jim Schlossnagle needs any reminder of where the 54-year-old has found himself professionally, just look at the photos on the office wall.

The new Texas baseball coach will see icons staring back at him, waiting for him to deliver the Longhorns’ next College World Series championship. The clock’s already ticking, too.

No pressure, Jim. Welcome to Texas baseball where, as Augie Garrido always said, getting to Omaha is the minimum expectation. Friday was the first day of practice, and the season opener is three weeks away.

“I sit in an office that coach Disch, coach Falk, coach Gus and Augie, their pictures’ on the wall, and it stares at me every single day, but I’m not afraid of that,” Schlossnagle said Friday.

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Not many schools hire a coach who gets enshrined into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame before he coaches a single inning at Texas. A program with high expectations seems tailor-made for a coach who’s already spent two decades thriving in a dugout.

“Every game is not going to be perfect. Every season is not going to be perfect. I would love it. But you know, I’m excited. As long as you have high, high support. I'm totally cool with the high expectation.”

It’s been a whirlwind seven months. Schlossnagle led Texas A&M to the brink of the national title in July and then chose to leave College Station for Austin, triggering quite a commotion between the two rivals in the process.

Asked to describe A&M starting the year ranked No. 1, Schlossnagle said, “There's no question they have a great club.” He complimented Michael Earley and said the Aggies’ roster is full of experience. “We’ll see what happens when we get to play.” That’ll be April 25-27 for planning purposes.

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Until then, Schlossnagle has bigger items on his agenda.

The Horns start the year 19th in the D1Baseball Top 25 poll. They should be strong up the middle with catcher Rylan Galvan and shortstop Jalin Flores and last year’s Big 12 player of the year Max Belyeu patrolling the outfield.

“We know there's a lot on our plate going a new conference,” Flores said of Texas’ move to the SEC. “But it doesn’t really mean anything, because at the end of the day, we're all playing ball. So I think the more selfless we can be, the more comfortable we can be on the field as a unit. I think we're going to play tremendous baseball.”

Schlossnagle has some ideas about the starting rotation, but so far, he’s not let anyone throw more than two innings. Arms will get stretched out in the coming days and weeks, and those who can’t handle it, “the rest of them, relievers.”

Everybody gets to play during intrasquad scrimmages, and everybody gets along on the first day. But things change when Schlossnagle starts making out the lineup card.

“You can't control the results, but you can control your behavior. That’s one thing I'm really confident in with this group,” Schlossnagle said. “What defines a team, besides the health of the team, is how does the team handle adversity.”

Texas went 36-24 last season and made the NCAAs. That wasn’t good enough for a program with the most all-time CWS appearances (38) but hasn’t won it all since 2005. The program parted ways with David Pierce and stole Schlossnagle from a team that finished as the national runner-up.

Texas expects its baseball program to be every bit as good as football. Schlossnagle, who had huge success at TCU and A&M and soaked up all of Garrido’s advice over the years, is ready for the moment.

Doing all of this in the SEC has him even more jacked up. “Wait ’till you guys see it,” Schlossnagle said. “It’s like the big leagues of college baseball, and it’s every single day, which will drive you crazy, but it’s so fun and so challenging.”

Schlossnagle and the Horns are just anxious to get it going. The Valentine Day’s opener against Louisville can’t get here fast enough.

“I think the core guys that we have around here that have been around for a while… we know what it's like to wear this uniform every day, and we know the tradition that that this place has,” said fifth-year senior Kimble Schuessler.

“That’s just what we kind of preach to the new guys and even the coaches. Like, hey, everyone wants to be wearing this, and it’s really special that we were the guys that get to wear it.

“We take a lot of responsibility in that.”