USC fires baseball coach Jason Gill after three tumultuous years
Ryan Kartje (LA Times) — After three turbulent years atop one of college baseball’s proudest programs, Jason Gill is out as USC’s baseball coach.
Gill was fired by USC on Monday, two weeks after the Trojans finished last in the Pac-12 Conference and more than a year after the university opened an investigation into his conduct. D1Baseball first reported that USC planned to fire Gill, but nothing was made official until Monday, when baseball players and staff were asked to meet to discuss the program.
“I enjoyed my time at USC and appreciated the opportunity to lead its baseball program,” Gill said in a statement released by the university. “I am excited to see what the future holds for me and my family, and I wish the players and the program the best.”
The university’s investigation into Gill remained ongoing as USC limped to a 25-28 overall record and 8-22 mark in the Pac-12, losing seven of its last eight games to miss the inaugural conference tournament.
The unrest within the program continued to simmer as well, players, parents and some staffers taking issue with Gill and his leadership. A person familiar with the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly about it told The Los Angeles Times that multiple players intended to leave if Gill remained.
The most storied program in college baseball history, with 12 NCAA titles, now finds itself without a coach for the fifth time in 16 years. Over that miserable stretch, USC made just a single NCAA regional (2015) while cycling through coaches who combined to produce just two winning seasons.
USC athletic director Mike Bohn, who is a former college baseball player, told players and staff during Monday’s meeting that he and associate athletic director Lindsay Jaffe would lead a national search to find the next coach.
“We believe in the promise of USC baseball, and our expectation is to compete for national championships,” Bohn said in a statement. “We are determined to restore the unrivaled winning tradition of our program, and we will make the necessary commitments to ensure we successfully recruit an elite leader for our baseball program.”
When he was hired from Loyola Marymount in 2019, Gill spoke confidently about returning USC to its throne.
“I took the job knowing what the standard is. The standard is winning national championships at USC,” Gill told The Times in February 2020. “You come to USC to play baseball. That’s the standard. Now it’s about us upholding them, or just reminding ourselves of how to get to that point. I just think they need some direction on how to do that.”
Gill never found that footing at USC, finishing with a 60-59 record over three seasons. His troubled tenure was marred not only by two losing seasons, but also two university investigations, one into his conduct and another into possible NCAA rules violations. USC’s compliance investigation found only one secondary violation.
No mention was made of those investigations in USC’s statement on Monday. Bohn did, however, note that the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic “created a difficult environment to navigate in the ensuing years.”
“We appreciate that Jason led us through those challenging circumstances,” Bohn said in his statement.
Gill won 10 of his first 15 games as coach in 2020 before the season was canceled amid the pandemic. Shortly after the team returned to play, seven players were suspended for violating pandemic protocols. A miserable season defined by turmoil followed from there, ending with a confrontation between the coach and one of USC’s captains, who was kicked off the team by Gill with two games left in the season.
Ten players and three other people close to the program later accused Gill and pitching coach Ted Silva of mistreating players and staff in a concerted effort to drive them from the program.
“No one wanted to be there,” one USC player recalled to The Times in March. “I was miserable. The culture of the team was terrible. There were a lot of kids that didn’t want to come back because of the coaches.”
That turmoil settled somewhat before this season, and USC officials were confident that Gill was steering the program in a new direction. The Trojans opened the season 11-3 but fell apart, finishing 14-25 during the remaining portion of the schedule.
latimes.com
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USC grads Rick Caruso (who played such an important role in cleaning up USC post-Max Nikias, and also in bringing aboard Lincoln Riley) and Karen Bass (USC’s 2019 commencement speaker) easily finished one-two in the L.A. Mayor’s race. Who will win in November? Seems like USC is a victor either way.
Sorry but I disagree with the comment about Caruso cleaning up USC. He simply used it as a way to set up running for Mayor. By hiring Austin and Folt he allowed them to push the school based on a political agenda. That explains so many things that have happened in recent years. He pledged transparency but never released the Puliafito and Tyndall investigations or told the truth why Quick was removed.
I give him credit for removing Nikias and hiring Riley but to say he cleaned up USC is BS. In many ways, he made it worse.
I welcome and respect your disagreement @redondob. Thanks for your perspective. ✌
in hoc
Great times. No doubt about that! Fight On!
I was upset about the foltie hiring–I knew from her tenure at UNC that she was a woke statue-toppler. However, I have it on good authority that little mao was the third choice for Caruso and the search committee. Did he use the BOT presidency to arrange his future political bonafides in deep blue Los Angeles? I have no doubt. But I feel strongly that he got involved with USC to be a genuine help to his alma mater after the Nikias swampy corruptive mismanagement disaster.
Big Varsity Blues Sentence coming up.
Shortly before she was scheduled to go to trial, former USC SR Assoc AD Donna Heinel pled guilty on 11/5/21 to honest services wire fraud for allegedly receiving at least $300,000 in bribes for arranging for more than 24 “fake athlete students” to get into USC.
She’s expected to draw one of the most serious Varsity Blues sentences.
60-year-old Heinel’s first sentencing hearing is set for Friday, June 10. The government has been expected to seek placing her in some sort of incarceration facility for 37 to 46 months.
Throw the book at this one, for sure.
In April, A federal jury in Boston found former USC water polo superstar coach Jovan Vavic (also 60, a ’92 UCLA grad) guilty of fraud and bribery for taking $250,000 to falsify Trojan athletic credentials. So Vavic’s next. He is set to be sentenced on July 20. Since he actually pushed his case to trial and lost, one would assume his sentence would be stiffer. He seems like he might be the final shoe to drop. For a guy who won 14 total men’s and women’s NCs for USC (the most of any Trojan coach, ever), his fall still blows… Read more »
If you have an extra 30 minutes or so hanging around anywhere, it’s worth listening to Keely Eure’s latest podcast with USC’s new Director of Football operations, high energy Clarke Stroud, longtime organizer and effectuator of Lincoln Riley’s plans: “I’m a pretty simple dude,” Stroud says. Stroud addresses his vital functions within Trojan athletics now and USC’s all-important newfound “accountability” under LR and how people associated with the Trojan football program finally face consequences if the correct things are not done. Being intentional, relationship-minded, joyful, handling the trickiness of social media, the importance of inclusion, and pervasively buying into what… Read more »
Strange, unfair, illogical, ridiculous realities:
1) Pete Carroll, who went to a New Year’s Six Bowl for seven consecutive seasons and won four Rose Bowls, is not in the CFB HOF because he only coached nine years.
2) Junior Seau is also not in the CFB HOF because he wasn’t named a 1st team AA by an NCAA-recognized selector at the time.
Lincoln Riley to Dennis Dodd (CBS Sports): “It feels weird building a roster this way, through the transfer portal. It’s the way of the world. It was very clear to those of us on the staff that this was the right way to build. It’s gone fast but luckily we’re at a place that sells itself, in all ways. It’s so unique in our sport. It’s awesome at USC. You can see why so many people want to live here. It’s like a dream. There’s nothing else like it. It just looks different in the Coliseum. Wait until this place… Read more »
Love hearing this. He definitely gets it. Can’t wait for kick-off!!!
https://twitter.com/USC_FB/status/1533965116764434432
We now get to see if Bohn is the real deal. Will he strike out or hit a home run (puns intended) Some say he stumbled into Lincoln Riley
I would like to see USC go after someone with professional ties. Players want to be pro ballers so it might helpful to have someone who knows the ropes. A proven winner is essential.
I’ll stick my neck out here and say Bohn has already proven he is the “real deal.” We all know the story behind LR suddenly leaving OU for USC. That super complicated/one-of-a-kind switch didn’t happen because of luck, which is the residue of design IMO. USC had to have ALL its ducks lined up in a row in several university areas to magically capitalize on LR’s crucial loss to OKS, suddenly taking him out of title contention. I’d say immed coming up with $10 mil-plus a year, plus whatever other perks USC threw in, mattered a lot more than luck… Read more »
Have to admit MG should have given Mike Gillespie more time to reverse the downswing the baseball program was headed the last few years he was manager. But the talent on those last few teams was good enough to do better. Was Gillespie’s drive slowing down after being in the same program for 20 yrs? What was alarming though was MG hiring Chad Krueter.
Gillespie was Chad Kreuter’s father-in-law. I was under the impression that even though Garrett and Gillespie were at odds, Gillespie’s wish was that Kreuter take over for him. I guess that was Gillespie’s backhanded way of getting back at USC while still getting what he wanted. Kreuter went 111-117 in four years at USC before he was canned. Kreuter was also canned from his latest job as bench coach for the Acereros de Monclova of the Mexican League on May 30, just a week ago.
If Oregon State can maintain a nationally ranked top program over the last decade plus, then there is zero excuse why SC can’t return to prominence with the right coach and culture. It all started when Mike Garrett got rid of Gillespie over what seemed to be a personality conflict, and continued by allowing Savage to end up at UCLA instead of SC. Baseball should have the same advantages as football, going forward. Just my opinion.
Garrett was always a tough customer, and to a fault, as he could be very abrasive one-on-one. He cared so much about winning at USC. Maybe too much (though some would debate that), resulting in the premature dismissal of a national championship coach like Gillespie. It’s interesting to look back at some hiring/firing decisions by the last three USC ADs, prior to Mike Bohn. All were utterly amazing USC football stars who achieved NFL success as well, especially Swann and Garrett. All got tangled up in complicated coaching decisions which led to their professional demise as ADs. Beware what you… Read more »
Garrett had an abrasive personality and couldn’t get along with people. He made a lot of bad decisions. But like you said Allen, he hated losing. If he was our AD(not Swann) Helton would have been kicked to the curb a lot sooner.
It all worked out, with Riley being such a great hire. Hopefully Bohn can deliver another Grand Slam hire in baseball, but I would settle for a ground rule double.