Kevin Schnall: 5 things to know about potential South Carolina baseball coach
No name has been mentioned more in association with the vacant South Carolina baseball job than that of Coastal Carolina’s Kevin Schnall.
Here are five things to know about Schnall, whose won nearly 75% of his games in two seasons leading the Chanticleers.
1. He’s been a Coastal lifer (so far)
To an outsider, there is every reason for Schnall to take the USC job if its offered. South Carolina would likely triple his salary. It’ll provide far more NIL resources than Coastal. And it has the cache of playing in the SEC.
So what would possibly possess a man to turn that down? For starters, loyalty.
Consider that the 49-year-old Schnall has spent much of his time on Earth (28 years) at Coastal Carolina: Five as a player (1995-99), 21 as an assistant coach under the legendary Gary Gilmore (2001-12; 2016-24) and now two as the program’s head coach (2025-26).
2. He knows how to win
Not only was Schnall an assistant coach on Coastal’s 2016 national championship team, but he led the Chants to the College World Series final last season.
Coastal went into the 2025 tournament as the No. 13 seed, rolled through its regional, swept Auburn in the supers and didn’t lose in Omaha until it met LSU in the CWS final.
Even though the Chants — currently ranked No. 24 in America — aren’t likely to host a regional, it’s quite impressive that they are likely to win 40-plus games despite being without ace Cam Flukey most of the season.
3. Learning ‘Schnall Ball’
Schnall has carried on Coastal’s reputation as a small-ball offense, a pedigree that Gilmore built up in his decades leading the Chants.
“Kevin kept this stat for years. For over 20 years, if we got a guy to second base, we hit .417 as a team,” Gilmore told Phil Kornblut on SportsTalk last week. “Well, somehow we’ve got to get a guy to second base; and if he can’t steal, I’ve got to move him (over).”
Though Coastal Carolina struck out the third most of any Sun Belt team this season, the Chants led the conference in sacrifice bunts and hit-by-pitches while finishing among the top three in walks and stolen bases.
That playing style would make South Carolina a contrarian in the SEC. But, after this past season, perhaps that’s just what USC needs.
4. He knows how develop catchers
Under Paul Mainieri, South Carolina seemed to have no plan for its catcher position to the point that USC moved Talmadge LeCroy from the infield to behind the plate to mixed results.
That likely wouldn’t be the case under Schnall, who played the position and takes pride in coaching it.
“He has a reputation for being an excellent developer of catchers,” Baseball America’s Jacob Rudner said of Schnall. “He’s just a really good ball coach.”
From 2008-11, Coastal Carolina had two catchers named as finalists for the Johnny Bench Award (nation’s top catcher) and another who finished as a semifinalist.
Then last year, Chants catcher Caden Bodine won the award before being drafted in the first round by the Baltimore Orioles.
5. He’s due for a massive pay increase
Following Coastal’s magical run to the College World Series final last season, the school bumped Schnall’s base salary from about $376,000 to $500,000 plus loads of incentives.
Still, that was nearly $1 million less than Mainieri ($1.3 million) was making at South Carolina.
If Schnall agrees to take the USC gig, he will almost assuredly become a Top-15 (maybe Top-10) highest-paid coach in college baseball and earn big raises for his assistant coaches, too.
Even Gilmore knows that could be tough to turn down.
“I mean, you also can’t walk away from the finances that an SEC school can provide to you,” Gilmore told Kornblut.
“You’re routinely getting $2 million to take a job like that,” he added. “I don’t know how you walk away from that. You’re not getting that at Coastal Carolina.”
