Not a lot has gone right for the South Carolina baseball program over the last few years.
Bad coaching hires, an empty Founder’s Park and more losses than they’ve ever seen in a single season. That hopefully came to an end on Tuesday morning. South Carolina made the hire they desperately needed and got their guy, Kevin Schnall from Coastal Carolina.
Schnall was the head coach at Coastal Carolina for only two years, but in his two years he took the Chants to postseason play twice and the College World Series Championship in year one. Meanwhile, South Carolina was busy putting together their back-to-back worst seasons in program history. It wasn’t for lack of effort or resources, either.
South Carolina watched as Paul Mainieri sank the program to Titanic depths it hadn’t seen before in year one. Still, they gave him a chance in year two. The Gamecocks administration gave him a $1.3 million salary and enough NIL support that he was able to bring in the No. 4 ranked transfer portal class in the entire country. That was combined with the seventh highest operating budget for any baseball program in Division I.
The resources have never been the issue at South Carolina. The three men in charge since Ray Tanner retired in 2012 have been. That was the year following South Carolina winning back-to-back national titles in 2010 and 2011. Since then, the production and winning have gotten worse and worse every year. Coastal Carolina’s haven’t at all, and Schnall was a big reason why.
During the rumors swirling and stalling stages of the hiring process, Schnall made it a point to remind everyone what Coastal Carolina had become. This wasn’t some Cinderella story. They have a top-25 operating budget nationally. They also had the sixth most wins in Division I baseball over the last 25 years. And, if that’s not good enough, they also have more wins than any other program in the state of South Carolina over the last decade. That includes former baseball blue bloods, Clemson and South Carolina. Schnall’s record as a head coach was 93-36, good for a winning percentage of .721.
Now he’ll turn his attention to the rebuild, and he’ll likely be doing so with a significant pay increase. A year ago he was making $500,000 near Myrtle Beach. Now he could be looking at three or four times that salary in the state’s capital.
Will it be worth it? If it gets the program back to postseason contention and Friday nights at Founder’s Park to being what it used to be, absolutely. Only time will tell if that happens.
