John Szefc - Clemson Baseball Coaching Candidate

Another potential candidate that has been generating buzz recently about taking over at Clemson for longtime head coach Jack Leggett is John Szefc who is currently the head coach of the University of Maryland Terrapins' baseball team. Szefc took over for Erik Bakich (a former Leggett volunteer assistant) for the 2013 season after Bakich left to take the University of Michigan job.

Since taking over as the head coach, Szefc has managed to take the Terps to the Super Regionals in the 2014 and 2015 seasons after missing the tournament during his first year at College Park in 2013. In 2014 regional play, the Terps managed to knock the Gamecocks out of the tournament in the Columbia Regional Final before advancing to play the UVA Cavaliers in the Charlottesville Super Regional where they would be knocked out by the Cavaliers who would go on to lose to Vanderbilt in the College World Series Final. In 2015 regional play, the #3 seeded Terps managed to knock out the #1 national seed UCLA Bruins in the Los Angeles Regional Final before going on to play the UVA Cavaliers for the second straight year in the Charlottesville Super Regional.

Szefc's first head coaching gig came at Marist College where he spent seven seasons as the head coach from 1996-2002. At Marist College, Szefc managed to take the Red Foxes' baseball program to the NCAA Regionals in four of those seven seasons (1997, 2000, 2001, 2002). In 2003, Szefc began a ten year stint as an assistant coach at bigger schools before taking over for Erik Bakick at the University of Maryland in 2013. During Szefc's time as an assistant coach he served as the hitting coach at three different schools including Louisiana-Lafayette (2003-2008), Kansas (2009-2010), and Kansas State (2011-2012).

After taking a traditionally weak Terps' baseball program to the Super Regionals the past two years and managing to knock out two of the top baseball programs in the country en route to those Super Regionals, this would no doubt be an intriguing option as a potential candidate to be the next head coach of the Tigers' baseball program. DRad will have no shortage of options to interview and he should definitely give Szefc a call.