Baseball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Phone:
- 205-348-4029
Brad Bohannon enters his second season as the head coach of the Crimson Tide baseball program. The 2015 American Baseball Coaches Association and Baseball America National Assistant Coach of the Year, Bohannon was named head baseball coach at The University of Alabama by Director of Athletics Greg Byrne on June 1, 2017. Bohannon, who became the 32nd head coach in Crimson Tide baseball history, was formally introduced at a press conference on June 5, 2017.
Bohannon immediately made his mark on the Alabama program. The 2018 season saw the Crimson Tide get off to a perfect 9-0 start, with Bohannon matching Wallace Wade (1924) for the second-best start to an Alabama head coaching career. Under his direction, Alabama improved its win total by eight from the previous season, including three more victories in SEC play, finishing with a 27-29 overall record and an 8-22 mark in conference action. The 27 wins were highlighted by six victories over top-25 teams, including a series victory over then-No. 7 Kentucky.
Sewell-Thomas Stadium also became a favorable spot for the Tide once again in 2018, as UA closed out its home slate with a 22-13 (.629) mark at The Joe compared to a 14-22 record in 2017. Alabama was rarely out of a game with Bohannon at the helm, suffering 14 losses by two runs or less, including five of the Tide’s six losses in the month of May – all against SEC opposition.
Bohannon came to Tuscaloosa with 14 years of Southeastern Conference coaching experience after having served as an assistant at Kentucky from 2004-15 and, most recently, Auburn from 2016-17. Regarded as one of the best recruiters in the nation, he was responsible for signing 13 Wildcat student-athletes that went on to play in the Major Leagues, including 2014 Golden Spikes Award winner A.J. Reed, while his first recruiting class at Auburn was ranked No. 9 by Collegiate Baseball and included six 2017 starters for the Tigers. His recruits at Auburn went on to fill all starting roles on the 2018 team that reached the Gainesville Super Regional, falling one run short of reaching the College World Series.
Dating back to 2008, all of Bohannon’s recruiting classes prior to coming to Alabama were 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. His first class at Alabama, the Tide’s current freshmen, ranked No. 23 in the nation by Perfect Game and as high at No. 15 by Baseball America despite just over a year to recruit to UA. During his time in the collegiate ranks, he has signed recruits from 25 different states and Canada, three of which have gone on to be first round picks in the MLB Draft.
Bohannon played a pivotal role in turning around both Kentucky and Auburn within three years on the job. The Wildcats became the first team in SEC history to go from worst to first in only one season, winning 44 games and the program’s first league title in 2006, while the Tigers won 12 more games in 2017 than in 2016 and advanced to the NCAA tournament. In addition to improving in the win column, the 2017 squad set the school record for fielding percentage at .975.
While at Kentucky, Bohannon served under two SEC Coach of the Year honorees in John Cohen and Gary Henderson. Along with winning the school’s only league title, Bohannon was a part of a trio of record-breaking win seasons, capped off by the 2012 team that won 45 games to set the program mark.
A combined 69 Wildcat student-athletes were chosen in the Major League Baseball draft or signed as a free agent during Bohannon’s tenure as recruiting coordinator. He had nine recruits selected in the 2012 draft, which set a new Kentucky record and was second-most in the NCAA. The 2018 MLB Draft saw seven former recruits from Bohannon’s time in Lexington chosen to begin their professional careers, four of which went in the top-10 rounds, highlighted by junior right-hander Sean Hjelle, a second-round selection of the San Francisco Giants.
One of Bohannon’s most notable recruits was the aforementioned Reed, who was tabbed as the consensus national player of the year in 2014. The 2012 freshman All-American continued to improve each year under Bohannon’s watch and went on to lead the NCAA in home runs and slugging percentage as a junior, while leading the SEC in wins by a pitcher.
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 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.
A native of Rome, Ga., Bohannon is married to the former Kim Traylor.
