Hiring timeline: 'Thorough' process brings Kingston to Columbia

Mark Kingston was at dinner with his family when Ray Tanner initially called him about the vacant head coach opening.

Tanner, a two-time national baseball national champion and now athletic director, called and chatted with the current South Florida head coach.

When he got off the phone, Kingston, who has nothing but high praise for Tanner, told his wife who was on the phone and she didn’t know who that was.

About a month later, Kingston’s wife, Letitia, was watching her husband introduced as the next head baseball coach at South Carolina.

“It’s been a long, thorough process. This wasn’t an overnight deal. From the first time he called me, it just felt like we were very much aligned in our values,” Kingston said. “I wouldn’t call any of it effort-filled. It’s been time consuming but it’s been very enjoyable. I’ve gotten to share coaching ideas from one of the greatest coaches of all time. It’s been nothing but positive.”

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The Gamecocks head coaching search was roughly a month long, starting at the beginning of June and ending when Kingston’s contract was approved by the university’s Board of Trustees Friday morning.

Chad Holbrook resigned late June 6, and the coaching search effectively lasted 24 days.

Reports of Florida’s Kevin O’Sullivan, Clemson’s Monte Lee and Oklahoma State’s Josh Holliday surfaced as candidates alongside Kingston over the coaching search.

Tanner said it was an extensive search, saying he would have long, hours-long phone calls with Kingston after the two initially talked almost a month before. Kingston wasn’t the only coach Tanner talked to, saying most of the names that surfaced were talked to about the job.

“This job attracts a lot of the top coaches in the country,” Tanner said. “Some of those conversation weren’t as serious as others. They were vetted out. I feel like it is the number one job, easily one of the top three or four in the country.”

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Kingston came down to Columbia for his interview, spending what he said was a 10-plus hour day on campus and touring the facilities.

It was then he was able to meet with some of the team, where he talked about his coaching resume and how he turned programs like Illinois State and South Florida around. The meeting impressed players like Jonah Bride, who said Friday he was energized and ready to play for Kingston.

About a week after Kingston’s on-campus interview and visit, he was named the team’s new coach.

“I’m not sure I visited with a coach that understands the culture as well as Coach Kingston does,” Tanner said. “We talked about the student athlete experience, we development, we talked about strategy, we talked about culture. We talked about everything you can possibly talk about.”

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Kingston spent the last three seasons at USF, taking the Bulls to the NCAA Tournament twice, including this year with a 42-19 record. He’s been a part of three College World Series teams, one as a player at North Carolina and as an assistant at Miami and Tulane.

It’s that experience that drew Tanner to Kingston with the athletic director citing that and Kingston’s motivational and developmental skills as one of the many reasons for the hire.

So after 24 days, vetting coaching candidates and a hour-long press conference, Tanner finally found his man.

“At the end of the day, when my staff and I were talking about the opportunities for the future of this program,” Tanner said, “I’m not sure there was a box he didn’t check.”