SEC School Targeting WVU's Steve Sabins for Head Coaching Position?

Sabins' work at West Virginia has caught the attention of one school from the south.

WVU Athletics Communications

When you have success, your name is going to be brought up a lot. Whether that's for awards, pure respect, or in some cases, as a candidate for an open head coaching job.

Hours before West Virginia's opening game in the Morgantown Regional, a report surfaced from Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball that WVU head coach Steve Sabins is one of the two names being heavily considered by South Carolina for its coaching vacancy, alongside Coastal Carolina's Kevin Schnall.

I understand the first things fans will tend to do when seeing a coach's name being tied to a job elsewhere is to panic and immediately think the worst. But Sabins and his family love West Virginia and have been a part of building this program for over a decade.

If South Carolina does pursue him and ultimately makes him an offer, it will be interesting, given the Gamecocks' history, resources, and ability to play at home early in the season, whereas WVU always has to hit the road to avoid bad weather.

At this point in time, I haven't heard one way or another if Sabins is interested in the job. I do know that Schnall has been the long-rumored target for South Carolina, and if Coastal is eliminated this weekend and WVU advances, they will be able to have in-depth conversations with him while Sabins' squad is still playing.

Earlier in the week, Sabins spoke about the passion of the West Virginia fan base and how he is hoping to see Kendrick Family Ballpark expand its capacity in the near future as the program continues to climb.

"I think it’s probably about time we build more seats here, clearly because there’s people that want to watch this baseball team that aren’t able to this go around. It’s part of the process of growing a program and building something special — you have to win, and then you have to drum up that excitement for those things to happen. As this program continues to build, I just look forward to what’s in store here because we have not reached a ceiling. We haven’t gotten close to a ceiling. There is better days ahead for Mountaineers baseball.”

Last July, Sabins signed a contract extension that will take him through the 2031 season. If he were to leave for another job, Sabins would be required to pay West Virginia 25% of his remaining base salary. In his first two years as the head coach at WVU, Sabins is 84-30 (.736).