By Chris Marler
Sixteen teams started this year’s SEC baseball season with postseason hopes. It appears that 11 or 12 kept those alive no matter what happens in Hoover this week at the SEC Tournament.
One school will continue its coaching search, and another two or tree vacancies are possible. Here’s a breakdown of which programs fall under that category.
Stove just turned on
I don’t know how you heat up a proverbial hot seat. Would it be a stove? Is there a propane tank involved? Who’s to say? However you choose to do it, Kentucky’s Nick Mingione is there.
It’s a hard conversation to have about Mingione. Afterall he just took Kentucky to the College World Series in 2024. That’s their only appearance in Omaha all time. They’ve also made the NCAA Tournament in four straight years and should make it a fifth time this year. That 2024 season also saw them win the SEC regular season title. Mingione is a good coach, but the small ball schtick that Kentucky carries is not a winning formula. They’re consistently in the bottom of the league in most offensive power categories.
They should be a No. 3 seed this year in a regional, but looking at the big picture, I don’t think they can compete at an elite level for very long.
Maybe the seat is hot; maybe it’s time for a change
I hesitate to talk about the next two names because any logical person could tell you they shouldn’t be on this list. However, rumors have swirled for most of the season that these two could be moving on – Tim Corbin and Kevin O’Sullivan.
Florida is going to host a regional and could work its way onto a top eight this week. O’Sullivan is safe even if the vibes around Florida are off.
These two coaches have been at the helm for Vanderbilt and Florida for a combined 43 years and have three national titles between them.
Corbin’s name has been the one with the most conversations tethered to his future. Vanderbilt’s (potential) failure to make the postseason this year has driven some fans crazy. As if making 19 straight postseasons is an easy feat. With O’Sullivan there are some off-field distractions that have surfaced over the last few years that even culminated with him stepping away from the role in the Fall. There hasn’t been that much talk about him being fired as much as there has been talk about the potential interest of other non-Power Four coaches’ interest in the job should it come open.
Neither one has done anything to elicit that type of reaction, but it’s the SEC, and crazier things have happened.
Searching and hoping
South Carolina made the correct move to fire Paul Mainieri just one month into the season. That has given them a bit of an advantage when it comes to finding another coach since their search began several months before anyone else’s potential search. The name that comes up most consistently is Kevin Schnall from Coastal Carolina.
While the Gamecocks are expected to put on a full court press in offering Schnall, by no means are all their eggs in that basket. Kansas’ Dan Fitzgerald just led the Jayhawks to their first conference title in 77 years. Southern Miss’s Christian Ostrander has handled pitching masterfully in Hattiesburg, and Craig Gibson has been great at Mercer.
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