COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -
With USC head baseball coach Ray Tanner stepping aside soon to succeed former athletics director Eric Hyman as the man in charge of South Carolina's future in SEC athletics, Tanner's first order of business will be finding a good steward for his dominant baseball squad and this morning he'll announce his choice.
He will likely give associate head coach Chad Holbrook the nod.
With two national championship titles and three straight College World Series finals appearances under his belt, Tanner leaves behind a team built for success.
Holbrook seems tailor-made to take over the baseball team, having served as a coach on a University of North Carolina squad that made the College World Series three years running and a South Carolina team that, of course, won the whole thing twice.
Holbrook's recruiting efforts at South Carolina have also been lauded. ESPNU and ESPN The Magazine even called him the 10th best recruiter in all of college sports in 2011. Holbrook was the only college baseball coach on the list.
Holbrook's pedigree has also paid dividends for players on the team. He has helped mold such players as Christian Walker and Jackie Bradley, Jr., and continues to work with freshmen like Tanner English, Grayson Greiner, Joey Pankake, and LB Dantzler.
Holbrook currently makes $176,000 as the associate head coach. If he is indeed hired to take over for Tanner, it is not yet known what his new salary will be.
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Chad Holbrook
