Here’s where ECU baseball’s head coach is a finalist for a top SEC coaching job

East Carolina University was once again knocking on the door of the College World Series this season, falling in two games to No. 4-ranked Vanderbilt in a super regional.

That trip was the team’s second consecutive trip to the super regional round after also appearing at a super regional in 2019. There was no postseason in 2020.

The team’s success has made coach Cliff Godwin a hot commodity in coaching circles, and according to a report on Wednesday, he is among the three finalists for the head coaching vacancy at LSU.

In a report by Glenn Guilbeau of the Lafayette Daily Advertiser, Godwin joins Arizona coach Jay Johnson and Notre Dame coach Link Jarrett in the final group as the Tigers — among the top teams in the SEC — look to replace coaching legend Paul Mainieri, 63, who retired this year after LSU’s run to another NCAA postseason, citing health concerns.

Mainieri retired after 39 seasons as the winningest active coach in victories with 1,505, including 641-285-3 at LSU, and is one of only five coaches in Division I history to win a national title and 1,500 games.

Godwin has been at ECU since 2014. He has a 258-130-1 record with the Pirates, for whom he was also a player, catching for the program from 1998-2001. His coaching career began in earnest in 2003, and he held a handful of assistant coaching jobs over 11 years, with stops at Wilmington, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, LSU, UCF and Ole Miss before succeeding Billy Godwin (no relation) as head coach at ECU in 2014.