Former Gamecock assistant has team in Supers. Is he a South Carolina candidate?
South Carolina baseball’s season is over, but a former USC assistant coach is heading to the Super Regional.
On Monday, Troy head coach Skylar Meade — a Gamecocks assistant from 2018-21 under Mark Kingston — led the Trojans to an upset victory over Florida in the Gainesville Regional final.
Troy not only advanced to its first Super Regional in program history, but the Trojans will host Little Rock next weekend for a spot in the College World Series.
Unsurprisingly, given that the Trojans’ run is coinciding with South Carolina’s search for its head baseball coach, a number of Gamecock fans and former players took to social media to ask: Is there any chance Meade could become USC’s next head coach?
“I just looked at what Meade has done at Troy, and it’s super impressive,” former South Carolina outfielder TJ Hopkins wrote on X. “I don’t know the players personally, but you can see his personality and culture throughout the team. Am I crazy, or should he be getting legit consideration?”
Blake Cooper, who pitched for the Gamecocks on their 2010 national title team, wondered the same thing.
“Why is he not in consideration!?” Cooper wrote on X.
It should be noted that Monday’s victory very well could have pushed South Carolina Athletic Director Jeremiah Donati to give Meade further consideration. But, speaking with an industry source on Tuesday, Coastal Carolina’s Kevin Schnall is still believed to be the frontrunner to land the USC job.
Gamecock247’s John Whittle reported that Meade was certainly on South Carolina’s radar when the search process began but wasn’t one of the leading candidates at this point.
Still, Meade’s resume as a head coach will likely earn him a Power-4 job in the near future.
In five seasons leading Troy, he’s won over 60% of his games and guided the Trojans to the NCAA Tournament twice (2023 and 2026) — quite a feat considering Troy had made just one tourney appearance in the decade before Meade arrived.
This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 12:13 PM.
