‘Clearly the best fit:’ Jeremiah Donati explains process of hiring Kevin Schnall
Jeremiah Donati wants to make one thing clear: South Carolina got the guy it wanted.
“He was clearly the best fit,” Donati, South Carolina’s athletic director, told The State on Wednesday. “There was no reason not to do it. When you have the best job on the market and you get the best guy for the job, you wish every search could go that well.”
The Gamecocks officially announced the hiring of Coastal Carolina’s Kevin Schnall, 49, as South Carolina’s next baseball coach on Wednesday — culminating a search that began when Paul Mainieri and USC parted ways in March and revved up when the Gamecocks let go of interim coach Monte Lee nearly three weeks ago.
Throughout that span, Donati’s obvious choice was coaching in Conway. Schnall, who spent 21 seasons as a Coastal Carolina assistant under Gary Gilmore, led the Chanticleers to the College World Series finals in his first season as head coach (2025) and returned Coastal to the NCAA Tournament this season.
When the Chants’ 2026 season ended on May 31, it felt like only a matter of hours or days before Schnall would become a Gamecock. Instead, it lasted more than a week — nine days that began with false rumors Schnall had already signed an agreement, to reports that South Carolina was making a run at snatching Scott Forbes away from North Carolina and ending with the confirmation Schnall was headed to Columbia.
In the end, Donati said, Schnall was the only person South Carolina offered the job to.
“We wanted to wait until we were able to fully vet all of the candidates,” Donati said. “And we weren’t able to do that (right away).”
And, well, it requires patience to “fully vet” candidates whose teams are still playing games and — in the case of hot names like Forbes, West Virginia’s Steve Sabins and Troy’s Skylar Meade — continuing on to the College World Series.
“This was such a big job that we needed to talk to everybody we could and make sure we were making the best decision,” Donati said.
Kevin Schnall the epitome of stability
Donati would not delve into the entire candidate pool other than to say he spent the last week doing in-person interviews with multiple coaches. One of those was Schnall.
Their meeting was supposed to wrap up in an hour. It lasted for three “and I could’ve talked to him for three more hours,” Donati said.
It was less of an interview than a conversation, Donati said, where South Carolina’s athletic director was trying to build a profile about Schnall’s personality traits, about how they’re “in the trenches together” and what happens “if things aren’t going well.”
There were questions about Schnall’s family, his kids. About what inspires him and what relationships he has outside of baseball. They talked about things that have played out at other baseball programs, about NIL and the current state of college athletics.
“What have they seen in our program that I might not know from the outside looking in,” Donati said. “You’re really just trying to get a lot of information about how they process things and how they think about things and how they come to their own decisions.”
Schnall aced the test.
Schnall, through a school press release, said: “To leave the place that has been home for 25 years, it had to be the perfect opportunity at the perfect time. That is exactly what the University of South Carolina represents. This program embodies everything that is great about college baseball with a championship tradition, a passionate fan base, and a commitment to excellence.”
Before Donati started interviewing candidates, he met with plenty of people who had been around the South Carolina program in the past. What the Gamecocks needed, they told the AD, was a foundation. Beyond the head coaching turnover, USC was rifling through too many pitching coaches, too many recruiting coordinators, too much newness.
Schnall, who’s spent the majority of his life at Coastal, is the epitome of stability.
“He’s obviously a program-builder,” Donati said. “His characteristics, integrity, his coaching style — I think all those things were incredibly impressive, but really his roster-building philosophy and his leadership qualities really separated him.”
Another differentiator: Schnall’s personality, born from growing up the son of coach in New Jersey.
“I would describe it as intense, in-your-face, no-nonsense,” said Taylor Motter, a former Coastal infielder who had a lengthy MLB career, “with the most loving affection deep down in his heart wanting you to be the best player you can possibly be.”
Schnall and Donati clicked immediately.
“I think he’s got the type of personality that really will do well in Columbia,” Donati said of Schnall. “He’s a winner, and he just kind of has that charisma about him, that spark about him.”
Donati continued: “Someone’s got to be the right fit here with the program, the city, the state. He was certainly that.”
Donati arrived at South Carolina in January 2024, and that means he’s never seen Founders Park rocking during an SEC weekend in April. Instead, he has been in Columbia for two of the worst seasons in program history — two seasons filled with apathy and Gamecock fans longing for the days when they could show up to the park on spring nights and expect to win.
Schnall’s task is to bring back those nights.
“I think that we really need someone that’s going to bring energy and excitement into the program,” Donati said. “I just think that that’s what the program needs right now. They need someone who’s going to kind of come in and kind of grab this thing and be bullish about it.”
