Former Clemson coach Jack Leggett’s legacy lives on at 2019 College World Series

Former Clemson baseball coach Jack Leggett’s legacy lives on at the College World Series where former assistants, Tim Corbin and Erik Bakich will play for the national championship.

The College World Series Finals begin on Monday night and there will be a Clemson flavor as Michigan and Vanderbilt play for the national title, thanks to former coach Jack Leggett.

At the beginning of the 2002 college baseball season, it’s unlikely Jack Leggett knew exactly what kind of legacy he’d leave on the landscape of college baseball once he retired. It’s almost certain he didn’t know that his pupils at the time would go on to exceed his array of accomplishments and go on to claim championships.

At the time, Leggett, then 48, was reaching the prime of his coaching career and was about to lead the Clemson Tigers on a run to the College World Series for the fourth time. By this point in his career, Leggett had been with the Tigers for about a decade, beginning his time at Clemson as an assistant coach for the 1992 and 1993 seasons.

In 1994, Leggett took over and began a head coaching career that led to remarkable success for the teams he coached and ultimately the teams that his assistants would go on to coach. Throughout the rest of the ’90s, the Tigers went on to compete in multiple regionals and make a couple of College World Series visits.

And then, in 2002, Leggett had assembled a team that featured three players who would hit 25 or more home runs that season and three players who would eventually make it to the majors.

Most importantly, Leggett also had three assistant coaches who would go on to compete in the College World Series when they eventually became head coaches. Two (Tim Corbin, Kevin O’Sullivan) have already won championships. One (Erik Bakich) has a chance to do that this season.

“I think [Leggett] is pretty sharp in terms of knowing what he needs for his program. He hired Tim [Corbin] from Presbyterian, a small school, but he saw something in Tim and gave him an opportunity and obviously Tim has had an unbelievable career,” Kevin O’Sullivan, Florida’s head coach, said.

And O’Sullivan is right, Corbin has had an incredible career.

He’s gone from being an assistant coach at Clemson to being Vanderbilt’s head coach. During his time in Nashville, Corbin has taken the Commodores to the College World Series four times and Vanderbilt won it all in 2014. Now, in 2019, Vanderbilt and Corbin have a chance to claim another title.

But Corbin isn’t the only member of that 2002 Clemson coaching staff who has claimed a championship.

In 2017, just three years after Corbin won his first College World Series, O’Sullivan and the Florida Gators won one of their own.

“He took a chance on me. I was working with the Minnesota Twins in the GCL and previously I had worked at Virginia. But he gave me a chance,” O’Sullivan said.

Now, two years after O’Sullivan won a championship, a third member of that Clemson coaching staff now has a chance to win a national title now as a head coach with the Michigan Wolverines. Erik Bakich brought Michigan to Omaha for the first time in 35 years. And he has a chance to win it all but Corbin and Vanderbilt stand in his way.

“Obviously, [Leggett] saw something in Erik [Bakich]. I think [Leggett’s] ability to identify young talent and bring them on board and bring us along, giving us the freedom to work and do our thing, I think he’s incredibly sharp in that way. Everybody needs an opportunity to start and he obviously saw something in all three of us. That’s a credit to him,” O’Sullivan added.

Those chances created future College World Series contenders

Now, all of those chances that Leggett gave to young, upcoming coaches have led to his former assistants coming to the College World Series at various times.

Prior to Corbin coaching the Commodores, Vanderbilt had never made it all the way to Omaha, let alone win a national title. The Florida Gators have a proud history with their college baseball team, but it was O’Sullivan who guided the Gators to win their first national title. In Ann Arbor, the Michigan Wolverines have a pretty solid program history as well, but the Wolverines haven’t won a national title since 1963.

Bakich is looking to change that, but he’ll have to go through Corbin, who is not only Bakich’s former Clemson colleague but also his former boss. When Corbin accepted the head coaching job at Vanderbilt, Bakich followed to be a member of the coaching staff there in 2003.

Now, the two are meeting with a title on the line and a national audience watching.

“It’s been really interesting, to be honest with you,” O’Sullivan said.

For O’Sullivan, he’s glad to see two of his former colleagues making it to the College World Series, each of them coming this close to winning a championship.

“It’s actually surreal, in a way, that both have played so well down the stretch here. We’ll see what happens, but I’m certainly happy for both,” he added.

Both took different paths, but have dominated down the stretch

Now, Leggett’s former assistants are coaching the 2019 national championship series. And they’ve taken two different roads to get to Omaha.

Vanderbilt arrived here in Omaha as one of the clear favorites to win it all.

The Commodores crushed most of their foes this season, cruised through the SEC Tournament, and claimed the title in a stunning comeback over Ole Miss. From Hoover, Alabama, the Commodores rushed right through the Nashville regional and super regional to come to the College World Series.

Michigan, on the other hand, had a bit of a rougher road to get to this point, but the Wolverines arrived here just the same.

The Wolverines had an up-and-down season and, as a result, had to repeatedly prove themselves as the regular season wrapped up. Michigan won a few games in the Big Ten Tournament but fell short by losing to Nebraska in Omaha.

The Wolverines wound up having to go out west and play through the defending national champs in the Corvallis regional, hosted by the defending national champs. And Michigan did that. When tasked with taking on UCLA in the Los Angeles super regional, the Wolverines did the improbable and gave the Bruins their first series loss of the season to advance on to Omaha.

So, in the 2019 College World Series finals, there’s a clear favorite that has been dominant all season and a clear underdog that has repeatedly proven itself all postseason.

Of course, as O’Sullivan put it, both teams are impressive. He was also clear about how both head coaches involved are still close to him.

“I’m rooting for them both,” O’Sullivan laughed. “They’re both really close to me. I’m just going to enjoy the games. I hope both teams play as well as they possibly can and we’ll see what the outcome is.”

Regardless of that outcome, it’s clear that Jack Leggett’s impact on the sport of college baseball will be felt for years to come as his past assistants continue to contend in the College World Series.