Jim Toman - Clemson Baseball Coaching Candidates

Jim Toman, 53, may be a dark horse candidate for the Clemson job. Formerly a player captain at NC State, Toman began his coaching career at FIU before returning to his alma mater to serve as an assistant under Ray Tanner. From 1990-1996 he was with Ray Tanner in Raleigh, and when Tanner went to South Carolina, he followed. Toman was there for three SEC crowns (two regular season, one tournament), but left before the NCAA championships.

While recruiting coordinator and working with catchers at South Carolina, Jim Toman won the 2002 Assistant Coach of the Year award.

In 2008, he joined Liberty as the head coach. In his eight seasons with the Flames, he's never won fewer than 33 games (Clemson won 32 games this season). He made his name in the 2013 and 2014 seasons though. In 2013 he guided the Flames to their only conference tournament title by winning the Big South Championship. They would go to the Columbia regional where they would beat Clemson twice, but lose to the Gamecocks twice as well, getting eliminated in the Regional Final. In 2014, they won 41 games before bowing out in the Charlottesville regional. He's won 40 games three different times at Liberty.

Toman's wife went to Charleston Southern, and he played in the ACC, so reasonable people may expect him to be interested in the Clemson job (a massive raise helps too). He would have been a hotter commodity after 2014, when he had just guided the Flames to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances, one in which they eliminated Clemson. After a mediocre 33-23 2015 though, he probably belongs a tier down from Terry Rooney (UCF), Monte Lee (C of C), Jim Schlossnagle (TCU), and John Szefc (UMD). Like Randy Mazey, he'd be a very solid hire, just not the absolute home run those others would be.