Alabama names Brad Bohannon head baseball coach

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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama’s search for a new head baseball coach has come to an end as the University named Auburn assistant Brad Bohannon as its next head coach. Bohannon, who spent the past two years coaching at the Crimson Tide’s cross-state rival, earned American Baseball Coaches Association and Baseball America National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2015. He becomes the 32nd head baseball coach in Alabama history and will be formally introduced at a press conference Monday.

Bohannon will replace former Alabama head coach Greg Goff, who was fired last week after leading the Tide to a 19-34-1 record, its fewest wins since 1980.

“I am excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Brad Bohannon to be our new head baseball coach at The University of Alabama,” Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne said, according to a release sent by the university. “As we began the search and studied our successful rosters from the past regional and College World Series teams, it became apparent that we needed our head coach to be very strong in recruiting in the state Alabama, the Southeast and then completing the roster with national recruits.

"The vision that Brad shared for Alabama baseball matched that recruiting philosophy and coupled it with a great coaching pedigree and a commitment to the student-athlete, both as a baseball player and as a well-rounded student. We are confident that he will be able to lead our program to championship levels, which we all value here at Alabama.”

Bohannon has 14 years of SEC coaching experience, serving as an assistant at Kentucky from 2004-15 before spending the last two years at Auburn. Known for his recruiting abilities, he helped sign 13 players at Kentucky who went on to play professional baseball, including 2014 Golden Spikes Award winner A.J. Reed. During his first recruiting class at Auburn, he helped the Tigers to the No. 9 rated class according to Collegiate Baseball.

Since 2008, all of Bohannon’s recruiting classes have been ranked in the top 25 with the 2008 class coming in at No. 4, the 2009 class at No. 6, the 2010 class at No. 16, the 2011 class at No. 25, the 2012 class at No. 11, the 2013 class at No. 25, the 2014 class at No. 16 and both the 2015 and 2016 classes coming in at No. 9.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime, and I cannot wait to get started,” Bohannon said, according to the release. “My goal is to make The University of Alabama the best baseball experience in the country. We’re going to recruit at the highest level, coach and develop our student-athletes and create a positive team culture that ultimately will help us to be successful. Every aspect of our program will play an important part, and Alabama has incredible resources to help us reach our goals. I truly believe we can accomplish anything here.”

According to a report from the Montgomery Advertiser, Bohannon is still with Auburn (35-24) as the Tigers are the No. 3 seed in the Tallahassee Regional. The report states he will continue to coach through the regional. If Auburn advances past that, Bohannon and Auburn head coach Butch Thompson will reevaluate the situation moving forward. The report also states Byrne asked permission from Thompson to talk with Bohannon shortly after Goff was fired last week. Thompson granted permission immediately.

Byrne alluded to the possibility of hiring a current assistant for the position during his news conference last week when he addressed Goff’s firing.

“We’re looking for the best possible baseball coach that we can get with college experience,” Byrne said at the time. “That could be a head coach, that could be an assistant coach, but we want somebody that’s been in college baseball and understands the dynamics of that. There have been several assistant coaches that I just want to give you examples of who have gone on to be head coaches at high-level program for their first job. Andy (Cannizaro) over at Mississippi State, Kevin O’Sullivan, who went from Clemson to Florida to be the head coach his first time, Brian O’Connor from Notre Dame to Virginia, Dan O’Connell from Ole Miss to Louisville.”

While he has yet to serve as a head coach at the college level, Bohannon has made a positive influence at each of his stops. While with Kentucky, the Wildcats became the first team in SEC history to go from worst to first in a single season, winning 44 games and the program’s first league title in 2006. This year at Auburn, he has already helped the Tigers win 12 more games than they did in 2016.

Prior to his stint at Kentucky, Bohannon worked for two seasons at Wake Forest as an assistant on George Greer’s staff. In his two seasons in Winston-Salem, the Demon Deacons advanced to the NCAA tournament twice and captured the Atlantic Coast Conference title in 2001. In addition to his collegiate coaching experience, Bohannon also spent the summer of 2005 managing the Southern Ohio Copperheads of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League.

Bohannon, a native of Rome, Ga., earned an undergraduate degree in finance in 1998 from Berry College in Georgia. He then went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration from Wake Forest in 2002. Bohannon began his collegiate career playing at Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech before finishing up at Berry.