The search begins, and it might be the most important one of Ray Tanner’s tenure.

South Carolina baseball is on the hunt for a new baseball coach after dismissing Mark Kingston, seeking a candidate to restore the program’s legacy as one of college baseball’s blue bloods after a 12th consecutive season out of Omaha.

Tanner, the legendary former head coach who brought two National Championships to Columbia, bit the bullet on the Kingston experiment after an underwhelming 2024 campaign. And for his second baseball hire as Athletics Director, now more than ever it is crucial to find a candidate who can satisfy a rabid baseball fanbase and help the Gamecocks catch up with the rest of the SEC.

As always the list is fluid, but here are a few names that could get in the mix for the South Carolina job.

Long believed to be the first call Tanner would make, McDonnell represents a high risk, high reward proposition.

McDonnell has all the career pedigree you would want to compete on the national stage. He has been to Omaha five times with the Cardinals, made it to four other Super Regionals and won over 700 games. But most of this success is falling further from view, as his Cardinals have missed the NCAA Tournament four of the last five seasons.

You could say he just needs a change of scenery, and he has frequently pushed Louisville administrators for further baseball investment. It is investment he would receive at South Carolina, but it would also come at a hefty price.

His salary is currently $1,400,000, a contract worthy of a coach with his 2010s track record, but far less enticing given Louisville’s last half decade of struggles. It would be a huge swing, a chance to get one of the most accomplished coaches in the sport. It could also backfire gravely if the gas really is out of his tank.

He also has strong ties to the state of South Carolina, playing four years at The Citadel and spending another eight as an assistant at the Charleston school. He also spent six years in the SEC as an assistant at Ole Miss.

Moving towards ACC candidates with more recent success, Pollard has completely put Duke baseball on the map after over half a century in the wilderness. When he arrived in Durham in 2013, Duke had not even reached the NCAA Tournament since 1961. Since then he has guided the Blue Devils to the postseason six times and taken it to three Super Regionals.

He signed a contract extension through 2025 following the 2018 campaign, although Duke is a private school and did not disclose the financial details. It is likely South Carolina would be able to offer a salary increase, and it undeniably would be able to provide an upgrade in resources and facilities.

Another fallen blue blood — Miami — approached Pollard about its coaching opening last off-season, but he declined to move within the conference. Would an SEC job entice him to make the jump?

Sticking with the idea of pulling a head coach at an established successful program, what Walter has done at Wake Forest has been as impressive as any rebuilding job in the country. Like Pollard, he inherited a program with little to no baseball tradition or investment and prospered in a major way.

It did take him six seasons to finally reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2016, but since then the Demon Deacons have been four times and last season, they reached the College World Series for the first time since 1955 and won their first ACC Championship since 1963 in the process.

The trick here is Walter signed a long-term extension last summer following the Omaha run, forcing South Carolina to pony up a larger buyout to land him. Wake Forest is also a private school, so the exact terms of his new contract are unknown.

Moving down towards the safer side of things, South Carolina could go the mid-major route again. This might not be nearly as well-received as some of the other options after hiring Kingston from South Florida, but there are a few names worth further examination.

One of them is Haire, who has taken Campbell to the NCAA Tournament five of the last six years and was in the mix to land the Georgia job last year before the Bulldogs hired Wes Johnson. A lack of SEC experience would be a significant drawback to this move, though. If hired, he would be the first SEC school to hire a head coach without any major conference head coaching experience since Missouri hired Steve Bieser in 2017.

What about a mid-major name with ties to South Carolina? Former pitching coach Skylar Meade was on Kingston’s staff from 2018-2021 and led his pitching staffs to team ERAs under four in each of his final two seasons in Columbia before taking the head job at Troy. He took the Trojans to the NCAA Tournament in 2023, their first bid since 2018.

Meade, of course, comes with all the same drawbacks and pitfalls of hiring a mid-major head coach, but he at least has SEC experience and it would be easy for South Carolina to greatly increase his salary, operating budget and resources compared to Troy.

If all else fails, there is one name Tanner can almost guarantee will say yes. Landon Powell, the local legend who played under him and is still third in program history in games played and fifth in home runs, is out there. Powell has been the head coach at Division II North Greenville University since 2014, and won the school’s first ever National Championship in 2022.

Obviously anything South Carolina could offer would dwarf what a Division II program could match, and he does understand the program’s history and tradition better than almost anyone. But dipping all the way out of Division I would be a hefty risk, and it is more than fair to question if Powell’s success would translate to the pressure cooker of SEC baseball.

Powell likely will not be the first or second call and may not get one at all, but he is the ultimate safety net in Tanner’s back pocket if nothing else comes to fruition.

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