Kevin Schnall’s to-do list as USC baseball coach is long. These are first priorities
South Carolina introduced Kevin Schnall on June 12 with a helicopter ride and fireworks. It was quite the spectacle.
Now it’s time for Schnall to get to work on righting the ship that is the Gamecock baseball program.
USC is coming off a 22-35 season in 2026 and missed the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row. It’s been 14 years since South Carolina has appeared in the College World Series.
The ultimate goal for Schnall is to get South Carolina baseball back to Omaha and its winning ways of the past. But in the immediate future, these are things Schnall likely has on the top of his to-do list in the coming weeks and months.
1. Finalize coaching staff
Schnall says things are “moving in the right direction” on assembling an “elite staff” at South Carolina.
Schnall has basically already completed this goal, but contracts for his assistants have yet to be officially finalized.
Matt Williams, Chad Oxendine, Tyler Shewmaker, Matt Peppin, Dylan Eskew and Mickey Beach are all reportedly following Schnall from Coastal to South Carolina. Schnall has also lured long-time Wake Forest assistant Bill Cilento away from the Demon Deacons to be the Gamecocks’ new hitting coach.
For what it’s worth, most of the reported hires Schnall plans to make — including Oxendine (assistant), Shewmaker (recruiting coordinator), Peppin (general manager) and Eskew (director of pitching development) — have already signaled they’ll be joining his staff via their social media profiles.
Williams will serve as the pitching coach. He was in a similar role at USC in 2024 under head coach Mark Kingston. The Palmetto State native was named Assistant Coach of the Year by D1Baseball and the American Baseball Coaches Association in 2025.
“I can assure you that we’re going to have an elaborate staff, and our goal is to, and I believe that we will, we’re going to put together a staff that would rival any coaching staff in the entire country,” Schnall said. “You’re only as good as the people that you surround yourself with. ... You got to surround yourself with elite people, which we’re going to do, which we’ve done in the past, and we’re going to do that again here, and that’s going to lead us to success.”
2. Build the roster
During his introductory press conference Friday, Schnall said goal “1A” in the immediate future is to “retain and acquire elite players.” Much like the construction of his coaching staff, Schnall feels he’s “moving in the right direction” there.
South Carolina has lost 23 players to the transfer portal since it opened on June 1. Of those, a few have already moved on to new programs.
Schnall will be tasked with finding the happy medium between re-recruiting current/portal Gamecocks while also looking for talent to bring in from other schools via the portal.
“As a staff, we’re assessing and evaluating every single position,” Schnall said. “We’ve been in great contact with the players, and ultimately we want to make sure that people want to be here. It’s very important that they want to be at the University of South Carolina, they want to be part of the change, they want to be part of this program moving forward.”
Schnall said he’s already jumped into the analytics on the players on USC’s 2026 roster, thanks largely in part to info from outgoing coach Monte Lee. It remains to be seen how many players will return from the transfer portal to USC, if any.
That being said, South Carolina has already landed commitments from eight of Schnall’s former Coastal Carolina players. Among those strong acquisitions are pitchers Dominick Carbone and Hayden Johnson, as well as infielder Walker Mitchell.
The Gamecocks also picked up commitments from Marshall outfielder Evan Botton and USC Upstate pitcher Max Bianchini, bringing their portal haul to nine players as of Monday.
3. Get to work with in-state recruiting
A general knock on the South Carolina baseball program in recent years is its seeming lack of ability to keep the best high school prospects in the Palmetto State in Columbia.
Schnall stressed that in-state recruiting is a priority for the program. At the same time, he was realistic about USC’s desire to recruit the best players regardless of where they’re from.
“The connectivity in this state is unparalleled, and we’re going to build from inside out,” Schnall said. “But ultimately we’re never going to settle for the next-best player. So, if that means we have to expand out, we will do that. The roster last year had 15 different states on it. The same thing at Coastal, we had to expand our wings and go coast to coast to go after the best student-athletes in the entire country. But our number one priority would be dominating the state of South Carolina and making sure the best players in this state are Gamecocks.”
In 2026 there were 11 S.C. players on the roster, down slightly from 12 in 2025. Those numbers used to be much larger. From 2000-2015, the Gamecocks’ roster was made up of an average of 50% in-state players, but that number dropped to an average of 37% in the years since, according to The Big Spur.
The Gamecocks currently have just one in-state high school prospect slated to join the team in 2026 thanks to Easley High pitcher Walker Cox.
It’ll be important for Schnall to re-establish South Carolina as the top program in the state in the eyes of local recruits. A decade ago that wouldn’t have even been a thought, but the reality is times are different now for Gamecock baseball.
Schnall won’t be able to do this overnight, but the first few months of his tenure will be crucial to making progress in that department.
