Coastal Carolina baseball coach Kevin Schnall, who took the Chanticleers to the championship series of the College World Series in June, is interviewing today for the vacant University of Tennessee head baseball coaching position, according to reports.

Reporter Mike Wilson of the Knoxville News Sentinel reported Friday afternoon, citing “a source with knowledge of the situation,” that Schnall was scheduled to interview for the job.

Several other Tennessee-based news outlets have also reported on the purported interview with Tennessee athletics director Danny White.

Coastal just announced on Oct. 15 that Schnall signed an extension with the school through the 2030 season.

In his first season as head coach after 21 years over two stints as an assistant to legendary CCU coach Gary Gilmore, Schnall led the Chants to a school record in wins with a 56-13 mark. His 56 victories are the most by a rookie head coach in Division I history.

The Chants won 26 consecutive games before falling to LSU in the best-of-three 2025 national championship series.

They swept through the Sun Belt Conference Championship, NCAA regional at Springs Brooks Stadium, Super Regional at Auburn and the first three games of the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

They were the first team in history to enter the CWS with at least a 23-game winning streak and reach the championship series with a 26-game winning streak.

Schnall is just the fourth coach in NCAA history to lead a team to the College World Series in his first season as a head coach.

His ties to CCU run deep. Schnall played for Gilmore at CCU as a catcher from 1995-99 and was named the Big South Conference Player of the Year in ’99.

Contract extensions at CCU for his associate head coach Chad Oxendine and assistants Matt Williams and Matt Schilling were also announced on Oct. 15. Williams, the pitching coach, was named the national assistant coach of the year by both D1Baseball.com and the American Baseball Coaches Association.

The Tennessee job became available Tuesday when the San Francisco Giants hired Vols coach Tony Vitello as their manager. Vitello, 47, who has no previous coaching experience in professional baseball, led the Vols to the 2024 national title and had been their head coach since 2018. 

Schnall did not respond to a text message late Friday afternoon.

White has said publicly that Vols associate head coach Josh Elander would also be a candidate for the head coaching position.

White may be familiar with Schnall from the University of Central Florida, where Schnall was an assistant coach for three seasons from 2013-15 before returning to CCU.

White was hired lo lead the UCF athletics department late in 2015 and remained until 2021 when he was hired at UT.

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