The South Carolina Gamecocks' baseball season is officially over. The Gamecocks fell 11-6 in the first round of the SEC baseball tournament in Hoover, thus ending what will be a season to forget in Columbia on the baseball diamond.
The game was a microcosm of the entire baseball season for South Carolina. The Gamecocks took their first lead of the day in the third inning to go up 3-2. But in the bottom of the same inning, Tennessee scored six runs, and went on to win 11-6.
Now that the season is over, the attention officially turns to who will fill the South Carolina baseball head coach vacancy. Just a little over a month into the season, Paul Manieri resigned as the Gamecocks' head coach, leaving the interim duties to longtime South Carolina staffer Monte Lee.
The abrupt coaching change early on resulted in South Carolina reaching a historic first-ever 30-plus loss season. The season also ended on a 13-game losing streak.
With the season in the rearview, let's take a look at who might be in the mix for the head coaching job in Columbia.
Names to know for South Carolina's baseball coaching search
Dan Fitzgerald, Kansas head coach
Dan Fitzgerald is the current head coach for the Kansas Jayhawks. He started his career at Iowa as an assistant in 2001, before spending a lot of his coaching days as a head coach at community colleges. After four years at North Iowa Community College and Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Fla. from 2003-06 as an assistant, he was hired by Des Moines Iowa CC in 2007. He earned the head coaching job in 2008, and led the program to five straight NJCAA postseason trips, including a Runner-Up finish in 2011.
In 2023, he was hired as the Jayhawks head coach. After going a combined 56-55 over his first two seasons, he led Kansas to a 43-17 record, as the Jayhawks made it to the NCAA Regional in Fayetteville. He's been named the Big 12's coach of the year two years in a row for his turnaround. Currently, Kansas is 39-16, and earned the No. 1 overall seed in this week's Big 12 tournament.
Obviously the big question is if Fitzgerald will want to leave the Midwest, but South Carolina might be an opportunity too good for him to pass up.
Mike McGuire, Winthrop head coach
South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati got a front-row seat to Coach McGuire just last week. That's because Winthrop upset the Gamecocks at home on May 12, winning 5-2 and giving the Eagles their first win over South Carolina since 2015.
Mike McGuire is currently in his second season as the Eagles head coach, but he played for the Gamecocks in the 1990s before his coaching career began. He has spent his days as a coach mostly in the South and North Carolina area. From 1997-2002, he was an assistant at Winthrop before getting his first head coaching gig at DII Lander University in Greenwood, S.C.
He then went back to Winthrop, located in Rock Hill, S.C., as an assistant from 2006-11 before coaching 2012 as the head coach at private Louisburg in North Carolina. He was the head coach at Morehead State from 2013-2019, before getting hired as the head coach at USC Upstate in Spartanburg.
As a head coach, McGuire is 508–389–1 in the NCAA, with a 52-9 record at the JUCO level. He won two Ohio Valley Conference Tournaments with Morehead State in 2015 and 2018, and is 508–389–1 overall as a head coach.
He may not have experience coaching at the power-conference level, but his familiarity with the South Carolina area is a huge plus.
Kevn Schnall, Coastal Carolina head coach
Kevin Schnall has cemented himself as one of the premier college baseball coaches in the country. He led the Chanticleers to the CWS Finals just last season, his first season as a head coach at Coastal.
Previously, Schnall was an assistant at Coastal under longtime Chanticleers head coach Gary Gilmore, and helped lead the program to a CWS title in 2016. He spent three seasons at UCF as an assistant from 2013-15 before returning back to Coastal as the associate head coach in 2016. He was named Coastal's new head coach after Gilmore retired.
He is 92–32 overall as a head coach, as the Chanticleers earned the No. 2 seed in this week's Sun Belt Tournament. Schnall achieving the success he has had with far less resources than a place like South Carolina begs the question of if the grass truly is greener elsewhere.
Justin Parker, Mississippi State assistant
Justin Parker does not have head coaching experience, but he does have experience with South Carolina. He spent two seasons on staff with the Gamecocks as the pitching coach in 2022 and 2023. His final season in South Carolina, he helped Gamecock pitchers post a 4.19 ERA, which finished second in the SEC and 12th nationally.
He has spent the last two seasons as an assistant at Mississippi State, where he arrived ahead of the 2024 season. The Bulldogs earned the No. 8 seed in this year's SEC Tournament, as MSU pitchers have a 4.34 ERA this season. He was also named the Bulldogs' interim during the 2025 season, and was kept on-staff by head coach Brian O'Connor.
Prior to his time coaching in the SEC, he spent three seasons at Indiana, where he was named an associate head coach in addition to his pitching duties. He has also been an assistant at UCF and Wright State.
Landon Powell, North Greenville head coach
Landon Powell might be a name that rings familiar to Gamecock fans. He played for South Carolina from 2001-2004, and when he left Columbia he had the most games played and wins than any other player in South Carolina history. He was a two-time captain for the Gamecocks, and helped South Carolina appear in three CWS from 2002-04. He was voted an All-SEC, All-American and All-CWS player twice.
He had five seasons in the MLB with the Oakland A's, Houston Astros and New York Mets from 2009-2013, retiring in 2013. He was hired as DII North Greenville's head coach in 2014, where he's compiled a 485-157-1 overall record, and led the program to its first-ever national championship in 2022. He's led the program to seven NCAA postseason appearances.
Monte Lee, current South Carolina interim head coach
Yes, we are including Monte Lee here. That's because although his stint as interim hasn't exactly gone swimmingly, he could end up getting the full-time coaching job.
Lee has plenty of familiarity with the South Carolina program, with two separate stints as an assistant from 2003-08 and 2023-present. During his time as a head coach at College of Charleston and Clemson from 2009-2022, he finished with a 518–281 record with eight NCAA postseason appearances.
In a recent interview with On3Sports, he has also shown he has a clear vision for the South Carolina program moving forward.
“South Carolina does not need to hire a coach who always compares Carolina to somewhere else, Lee said earlier this week via On3. This is the University of South Carolina. We have an amazing tradition here and the leader needs to understand that. Even if I am not chosen, that would be feedback I would give to our administration and to the next staff. Be true to who you are. This place is amazing. Embrace the Gamecock tradition.”
Lee even made the case for himself when asked after the Gamecocks' loss in Hoover:
“I just ask anybody to look at my track record as a head coach. I’ve won plenty of games as a head coach.”
— Jack Veltri (@Jacktveltri) May 20, 2026
Monte Lee makes his final case for why he should be South Carolina's next head coach. https://t.co/9MCtfWZkpC
Of course, there are likely plenty of candidates outside of these frontrunners that Donati is considering.
But now that the South Carolina baseball season is officially over, expect the coaching search rumors to massively heat up in the next few days.
Thanks to the NCAA baseball's postseason schedule, a head coach being officially named may not come until next month, depending on the coach's postseason duties with his current team.
ALSO READ: South Carolina offers prospect coached by former Gamecock return specialist
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