Baseball

USC, head baseball coach Gill to part ways

Jason Gill spent three seasons as the Trojans’ head coach.

A photo of athletic director Mike Bohn wearing a cardinal USC cap in the Trojans' dugout during a game.

USC athletic director Mike Bohn announced on Monday that the program is parting ways with head coach Jason Gill. Bohn came to USC after Gill's hiring by former athletic director Lynn Swann. (Photo by Jason Goode)

By Nathan Ackerman

USC and head baseball coach Jason Gill have “agreed amicably to part ways” after three seasons, the athletic department announced in a press release Monday morning. D1Baseball first reported USC’s intentions to split with Gill on Saturday.

Gill amassed a 60-59 record overall and a mark of 21-39 in Pac-12 play during his USC tenure. The announcement comes 16 days after USC wrapped up its second straight losing season, in which the Trojans’ 8-22 in-conference record put them dead last in the Pac-12 standings.

“We are thankful to Jason for his three years of service to our university and baseball program,” athletic director Mike Bohn wrote in the release. “We ultimately determined it was in our shared best interest to part ways at this time. We wish Jason and his family all the best moving forward.”

The news also comes approximately three months after the Los Angeles Times reported on internal dysfunction within USC’s clubhouse and rocky relationships between Gill and several of his players, particularly during the 2021 season.

Gill’s USC tenure got off to an encouraging start in 2020. The Trojans raced to a 10-5 record — which included a win over No. 2 Vanderbilt — before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the remainder of the season.

But Gill’s Trojans went 50-54 across the next two years, missing the NCAA Tournament in each. It extended the program’s postseason drought to seven seasons. The Trojans have won 12 national championships in program history (no other program has won more than six), but USC hasn’t made the College World Series since 2001 or won it all since 1998.

“We believe in the promise of USC baseball, and our expectation is to compete for national championships,” Bohn wrote. “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.”

Gill spent the 2009-2019 seasons as head coach at LMU, going 322-286-1. Gill won both a West Coast Conference Tournament and a regular season title with the Lions before his hiring by former USC athletic director Lynn Swann.

Bohn took on USC’s athletic director role in November 2019, two months after Swann’s resignation. Gill made his regular season debut three months after Bohn’s arrival.

“I enjoyed my time at USC and appreciated the opportunity to lead its baseball program,” Gill wrote in the release. “I am excited to see what the future holds for me and my family, and I wish the players and the program the best.”

A nationwide search for the Trojans’ next head coach will begin immediately, per the announcement.