What Scott Forbes said about being connected to Gamecocks’ baseball coaching search
In six seasons as UNC’s baseball coach, Scott Forbes has led the Tar Heels to six NCAA regionals, four super regionals and two College World Series appearances.
That postseason success in Chapel Hill apparently turned some heads in Columbia.
According to multiple reports, South Carolina spoke with Forbes to gauge his interest in its open baseball coaching job before hiring Coastal Carolina’s Kevin Schnall.
The Gamecocks’ contact with Forbes, which flew a bit under the radar during the early days of their coaching search, became a storyline Tuesday after news of Schnall’s expected hire broke.
D1 Baseball’s Kendall Rogers reported that South Carolina had “flirtations” with Forbes during its search, and John Whittle of Gamecock247 reported that USC athletic director Jeremiah Donati met with Forbes in person at some point during the week of June 1-5. (Donati also met with Schnall in person that week.)
The only issue with USC making a run at Forbes, according to Rogers?
“That wasn’t happening,” he wrote on X, adding in another post that Forbes “is a Tar Heel through and through. He was never leaving UNC for South Carolina.”
‘This time of year, things can happen’
Forbes’ Tar Heels were the No. 5 overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament. After cruising through its regional, UNC dropped its opening super regional game at home against Southern Cal on Friday before winning back-to-back games Saturday and Sunday to reach the College World Series for the second time in three years.
Forbes addressed South Carolina’s interest in him during a Tuesday interview with InsideCarolina without specifically naming the Gamecocks. He also hinted UNC’s administration recently made an additional financial commitment to baseball.
“Any time you have success, you know that this time of year, things can happen,” Forbes told the website. “What I’ll say to that is: The commitment and the support of (North) Carolina baseball has really become clear to me, even more so just recently.”
On March 31, UNC announced it had signed Forbes to a mid-season contract extension keeping him in Chapel Hill through 2031. That extension came 10 days after South Carolina fired former coach Paul Mainieri on March 21.
Terms of that contract haven’t yet been disclosed, but the extension is expected to significantly elevate Forbes’ UNC salary. Under his most recently available deal signed in 2024, he was making $480,000 in base salary and could earn up to $500,000 annually in additional bonuses.
Gamecocks interest leads to ‘further commitment’ from UNC
As South Carolina’s coaching search ramped up in earnest this month, UNC made a “further commitment to the baseball program,” according to Inside Carolina. Forbes hinted that additional funding could go toward raising his assistant coaches’ salaries.
Speaking to IC, Forbes said his talks with UNC have shown him “how much people want us to succeed and how committed they are in this new landscape, because you have to take another level of commitment to have a chance to continue to do well.”
“We want to pack this place,” he said, referring to UNC baseball’s home ballpark. “We want to be in the mix to host regionals. And it takes a lot of support. It takes a lot of commitment to your staff – to keep them, retention.”
Forbes, 51, is in his 21 consecutive season on UNC’s baseball staff and 25th overall. He was a longtime assistant coach under Mike Fox and was promoted to head coach in 2020 after Fox’s retirement. He’s also a native of Sanford, North Carolina 45 minutes from Chapel Hill and played college baseball in-state at NC Wesleyan.
Rogers, of D1 Baseball, wrote on X that USC “spent too much time chasing guys that were not taking that job – Scott Forbes, primarily.”
In his Tuesday interview with Inside Carolina, Forbes said he was completely focused on the Tar Heels, who play their opening CWS game Friday.
“I’m as proud as I’ve ever been to be sitting here with you today as the head coach at North Carolina,” he told the website.
