Butch Thompson leaning toward three candidates to fill Bohannon’s spot

AUBURN – Butch Thompson’s objective this week is to recruit a recruiter to Auburn.

Sources close to the Auburn baseball program have narrowed the preliminary list of candidates for his open assistant coach spot consists of three current Division 1 assistant coaches

Thompson, who is currently meeting with all of his players in program exit interviews, is debating between Old Dominion assistant coach Karl Nonemaker, Kansas State associate head coach Mitch Gaspard and Jacksonville University assistant coach Chuck Jeroloman.

The vacancy exists after Auburn assistant coach Brad Bohannon was named the new Alabama head coach Thursday with his introductory media conference being Monday morning.

Thompson detailed his criteria Monday night following Auburn’s 6-0 loss in the Tallahassee Regional Championship Game that ended the Tigers 2017 campaign just one win away from hosting a Super Regional.

“I want to get somebody special. I think I've got it narrowed down,” Thompson said Monday night. “Recruiting is really important. If you look at the complexion of our current staff, that becomes a void. It's got to be all those things that every great program looks for. They've got to be bright, they've got to be able to evaluate, they've got to be personable and they've got to be one of the best in America because we can get that.”

Nonemaker has just finished his sixth season as an assistant coach at Old Dominion under head coach Chris Finwood. Nonemaker is the recruiting coordinator of a Monarchs program that won 37 games last season but was one of the first four at-large schools out of the 2017 NCAA Baseball Tournament. The Roxbury, New Jersey native has direct ties to the Southeastern Conference and Auburn in his playing and coaching career.

Nonemaker was a four-year starter at Vanderbilt from 1999-2002. He was named a Freshman All-America selection in 1999, and was a First-Team All-SEC outfielder in 2000.  He ranks second all-time at Vanderbilt in hits (283) and career batting average (.369). Nonemaker’s first assistant coaching job was at Auburn in 2004 where he spent three seasons with the Tigers program including a trip to the NCAA Tallahassee Regional Final in 2005.

Gaspard is well familiar with the state of Alabama and the Alabama-Auburn rivalry after he spent seven seasons (2010-16) as the head coach of the Crimson Tide program. Gaspard led Alabama to consecutive NCAA Regional appearances on two occasions in (2010 and 2011, 2013 and 2014) and his 2010 squad won 42 games and advanced to a Super Regional, finishing just one victory shy of the College World Series. The Crimson Tide also advanced to the championship game of the NCAA Tallahassee Regional in 2011 and 2014.

While an assistant coach at Alabama from 1995-2001 under Jim Wells, Gaspard served as the recruiting coordinator for recruiting classes that were ranked in the top-20 nationally five times, including three straight top-10 classes according to Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball.
With Bohannon now at the in-state rival, it would be a more than interesting dynamic to see former Alabama head coach Mitch Gaspard in an Auburn uniform in the visitors dugout for a 2018 conference series at Sewell–Thomas Stadium.

“I'll have to reconnect,” Thompson said of the in-state recruiting connections Bohannon made in 20 months with the Tigers program. “Brad did a great job of connecting in those relationships. I have to go make sure that all the people that are so committed believing in Auburn understand and here from me personally that we're going to find the right person, to give me time.”

Jeroloman should be a name most Auburn fans remember. The West Palm Beach, Fla., native started at shortstop all of his three years with the Tigers from 2002-04 before being drafted in the 21st round by the Boston Red Sox in 2004 following his junior season. Jeroloman played in 175 games and amassed 33 doubles, 12 home runs and drove in 91 runs. He has been an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Jacksonville University since July 2013 after two years as an assistant coach at TCU.

One thing Thompson said Monday night is he’ll change the dynamic of how he approaches the assistant coaching search process. The Tigers second-year head coach said he’ll go on the road to interview candidates at their home instead of bringing them to Auburn’s campus.

“I'll do it a little bit different -- one of my closest friends did it this way -- I'm going to go recruit people and go to see them in their element, in their home, as opposed to bringing people to campus,” Thompson said. “I think most people understand that Auburn University is an unbelievable school and know enough about our baseball program. I'm going to go try to find the right fit and the right man and somebody who has a high level of college experience that is thought of one of the best recruiters in America.”