Former Coastal baseball coach Gary Gilmore talks Kevin Schnall, Gamecocks opening
Surely Gary Gilmore knows what Kevin Schnall’s fate is. Heck, if there’s anyone who could understand the psyche and dilemma of Schnall, it’s his former coach — the man who turned down countless jobs to stay at Coastal Carolina.
Certainly he must know whether Schnall wants to be the next baseball coach at South Carolina, right?
“I’ll be honest with you, I have not had that conversation with him,” Gilmore told Phil Kornblut on SportsTalk Tuesday night. “Kevin will do a fantastic job if he’s the guy they hire.”
Gilmore (1979-80), like Schnall, played at Coastal Carolina well before most folks knew how to pronounce Chanticleer (OK, well, that’s still a work in progress). In 1996, just three years after leading USC-Aiken to the Division II College World Series, Gilmore took an $11,000 pay cut to coach his alma mater, leading a baseball program that had made the NCAA Tournament just once.
By year four, he set the program’s DI record for wins (43). They were back in the NCAA Tournament in 2001. By 2012, Coastal Carolina was one of the most consistent programs in America, having won at least 42 games in six straight seasons. Then came the national title in 2016, the improbable run that cemented Gilmore’s legacy and validated Coastal baseball.
And, well, he didn’t leave. Gilmore coached another eight seasons at Coastal Carolina before retiring in 2024 with more than 1,100 wins in Conway. The big question now: Will Schnall do the same?
“I would surely hate like heck to ever see Kevin leave,” Gilmore said. “The culture that we all built together and the stuff we did — I mean, it would probably go away. I’d personally really hate to see that.”
After 21 seasons as a Coastal Carolina assistant, Schnall took over for Gilmore last year and proceeded to lead the Chants to their second-best season ever, which included 56 wins and a run to the College World Series final.
In other words: It’s no wonder South Carolina might want Schnall to be its next baseball coach. But will he leave? Most folks would say he’d be crazy not to — but it’s worth remembering that he came up watching a man stay true to his alma mater and build it into the best baseball program in the state.
“Gary stayed at his school because he loves it,” N.C. State coach Elliott Avent said of Gilmore in 2024, “even though he could have gone to so many other places, because that’s just him. He’s loyal.”
It should be pointed out that Schnall’s decision would be far different from any Gilmore had to face. For starters, Gilmore stayed true in an era where staying true was a selling point to recruits. What does a kid care about loyalty in the age of the transfer portal and NIL?
In his final news conference, Gilmore railed at what NIL and the transfer portal had done for mid-major programs like Coastal, saying bluntly: “There’s not a level playing field.” Would Gilmore have been as loyal to CCU in this new age? Did Schnall disprove that by coming two wins away from a national title last year? Who knows?
And then there is the money. Schnall currently makes $500,000. A jump to the SEC would likely come with a raise of at least $1 million. (South Carolina paid former baseball coach Paul Mainieri $1.3 million this year.)
“I mean, you also can’t walk away from the finances that an SEC school can provide to you,” Gilmore told Kornblut. “Heck, (in) my generation it was a lot to take those jobs. Now, it’s like holy cow, man. You’re routinely getting $2 million to take a job like that.
“I don’t know how you walk away from that. You’re not getting that at Coastal Carolina.”
