Making sense of South Carolina’s baseball coaching search ... and what could be next
It seems to be pretty clear that South Carolina Athletic Director Jeremiah Donati was — or still is — waiting for someone.
Waiting is risky.
Heading into this weekend, three reported candidates to become USC’s next baseball coach — Scott Forbes (North Carolina), Skylar Meade (Troy) and Steve Sabins (West Virginia) — had their programs hosting an NCAA Tournament Super Regional. And, well, they all advanced to the College World Series.
It is unclear which of the three coaches was/is atop Donati’s list, but there are some indicators it was/is Forbes. On Sunday morning, just hours before North Carolina walked off Southern Cal to punch the Tar Heels’ ticket to Omaha, On3’s Jamie Bradford posted: “I will be keeping an eye on the UNC game today. We do believe the outcome could impact which direction this process goes.”
At this point, it seems, Donati is left with two options.
One, just keep waiting. Talks and negotiations are, of course, going on behind the scenes. South Carolina should be able to get a sense of whether its top choice would leave for Columbia once his College World Series run comes to an end. One scenario: A memorandum of understanding (MOU) is signed and kept secret until the coach’s season is over.
Or, two, just hire the obvious choice in Kevin Schnall.
Talking with sources following Coastal Carolina’s NCAA Tournament exit, Schnall was the clear frontrunner in the Gamecocks’ search. Was that because of the secrecy of this search led everyone intel to be targeted in the direction of the most-obvious choice? Perhaps. Was that because Schnall was the No. 1 choice? Maybe, but that now seems doubtful given that Coastal’s season has been over for a week and Schnall is still a Chanticleer.
D1 Baseball national writer Kendall Rogers reported May 29 that Schnall and Sabins were the two leaders in South Carolina’s search.
The longer this search goes, it seems less likely that Schnall will end up a Gamecock. Each passing day signals a willingness on Donati’s part to wait.
Which comes with risk beyond the fact that the person you’re waiting on could keep winning. The college baseball transfer portal opened on June 1 and, since then, South Carolina has lost 20 players and — because it doesn’t have a head coach — has brought in zero.
Now, it isn’t the end of the world if you don’t sign anyone for a few weeks. Memorably, Texas waited until Texas A&M lost in the 2024 College World Series Final to pluck away Aggies coach Jim Schlossnagle. The Longhorns hired their coach on June 25 — well after the portal opened — and won 44 games in his first season and are a win away from making the College World Series this year.
This will not be a Paul Mainieri situation, where a retired coach is starting from scratch. Whoever South Carolina hires both already knows some of their transfer-portal targets and will likely be able to lure a number of kids from their former school to USC.
But, again, that is a risk.
This story was originally published June 7, 2026 at 8:04 PM.
