Chad Holbrook Resigns At South Carolina

After his Gamecocks missed the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons, South Carolina head coach Chad Holbrook resigned late Tuesday night, ending weeks of speculation about his future at the school.

Holbrook, 46, went 200-106 in five seasons, winning 40 games in three of those five seasons and reaching super regionals in 20013 and 2016, but his 35-25 team this year didn’t get a regional bid during a tumultuous season that included the dismissal of his volunteer assistant, Brian Buscher, and eight straight series losses to end Southeastern Conference play.

The Gamecocks didn’t make the tournament even with athletic director Ray Tanner—Holbrook’s predecessor as coach, who won national championships in 2010-2011—on the Division I baseball committee, which selects the 64-team field.

According to sources with knowledge of the situation, Tanner has spoken with Holbrook several times to discuss the program’s future since returning to campus after his committee duties on Memorial Day weekend, including a four-hour meeting Monday. It wasn’t until today that Tanner decided to make the change official.

“I want to thank our fans, players, coaching staff and everyone that touched Carolina baseball,” Holbrook said in a press release. “This will always be a special place for me and my family. Wearing that jersey, being a part of two national championships, and meeting so many great people are things I will always treasure. I will always be a Gamecock!

“At the end of the day, this was the best decision for us. I wish Coach Tanner and this program I love so much nothing but the best.”

Tanner added, “We thank Coach Holbrook for his dedication and commitment to the program and wish him the best in his future endeavors. He and his family were part of some great memories at South Carolina and we will miss them.”

Holbrook, who played at North Carolina in the early 1990s, served as an assistant for the Tar Heels from 1995-2008—including three Omaha trips in 2006-08—before joining the Gamecocks staff for the 2009 season. Holbrook was part of both national championship squads in 2010 and ’11.

When Tanner resigned as coach to move into the athletic director’s chair after the 2012 CWS, Holbrook ascended to his first head coaching opportunity, and while he had success, this season went downhill. The team’s two top prospects, righthanders Wil Crowe (2016) and Clark Schmidt (2017), have both had to have Tommy John surgery. A series loss to rival Clemson in the non-league portion of the schedule was soon followed by a 13-17 SEC mark. Meanwhile the atmosphere around the program became decidedly negative, a fact that was not lost on visiting scouts, opposing teams or recruits.

“I have the utmost confidence in myself,” Holbrook told reporters in Columbia last week. “I feel great about my ability to coach and lead this baseball program. I love this university, I love this community. So many people have been so supportive of me and our program and our family, and I feel great about moving forward.”

Speculation of Holbrook’s replacement has centered around South Alabama head coach Mark Calvi, who was the Gamecocks’ pitching coach in the 2010 title season. He just got done leading the Jaguars to a 40-21 record, his third 40-win season there.

A bigger-name possibility, though tougher to lure to South Carolina, would be Oklahoma State coach Josh Holliday, who can handle a high-pressure job and whom Tanner is known to admire. He just led his alma mater to Omaha last year (knocking South Carolina out along the way in super regionals), but facilities upgrades have been slow to materialize in Stillwater. The Oklahoma State athletic department already suffered a high-profile coaching defection this year, as men’s basketball coach Brad Underwood left after one season for a larger contract at Illinois.

Maryland head coach John Szefc, Arizona’s Jay Johnson and Wake Forest’s Tom Walter are also strong possibilities, as all three have had success with lesser facilities than the Gamecocks have. Calvi (Tennessee) and Szefc (Virginia Tech) have been connected to other openings in Power Five conferences, so Tanner may have decided he had to act now, forcing Holbrook to resign, to get one of his top targets.

Several BA sources confirmed contact between Tanner had reached out to Florida’s Kevin O’Sullivan, who is thought to be less than pleased with the pace of upgrades at his facilities and the somewhat tepid reaction of Gators fans to his program’s consistent success. However, O’Sullivan is a Florida native who spent nine seasons as an assistant at rival Clemson. His name has come up with other openings in the past, and the other reason O’Sullivan was said to have wanderlust—former athletic director Jeremy Foley—is gone, having retired last year.

Dark horse candidates with deep Gamecocks ties would include Jim Toman, a longtime Tanner assistant who had a solid nine-year run as Liberty’s head coach, and former South Carolina catcher Landon Powell, the coach at Division II North Greenville. Toman worked with Calvi on the Gamecocks staff prior to taking the Liberty post. Powell, whose coaching staff includes former ‘Cocks Scott Wingo and Jon Coutlangus, is more likely a candidate for a job with lower expectations—and pressure—such as the Citadel.

Two years ago, the most logical candidate would have been Monte Lee, another former Tanner assistant. But Clemson pushed out longtime coach Jack Leggett, Tanner’s old rival, after the 2015 season and hired Lee away from the College of Charleston. In two seasons, Lee has revitalized Clemson’s program, particularly in terms of recruiting.

Now Tanner has to find Holbrook’s replacement to combat Lee, replace Holbrook, hold in place a well-regarded recruiting class and compete in the SEC. It will not be an easy task.

2017 COACHING CHANGES
School	Departures	Arrivals
Alabama	Greg Goff	Brad Bohannon
Cincinnati	Ty Neal	Scott Googins
Citadel	Fred Jordan
Dayton	Tony Vittorio
Incarnate Word	Danny Heep
La Salle	Mike Lake
Massachusetts	Mike Stone	Matt Reynolds
North Florida	Smoke Laval	Tim Parenton
Santa Clara	Dan O’Brien
South Carolina	Chad Holbrook
Southern	Roger Cador
Stanford	Mark Marquess (retiring after season)
Tennessee	Dave Serrano
Texas-Rio Grande Valley	Manny Mantrana
Towson	Mike Gottlieb
Virginia Tech	Patrick Mason
Xavier	Scott Googins