Those Clemson-South Carolina recruiting battles might not be quite as intense from now on. About a week after Florida hired Clemson recruiting coordinator Kevin O’Sullivan as its head coach, Liberty has hired South Carolina recruiting coordinator Jim Toman as its new coach. Toman and O’Sullivan are regarded as two of the nation’s hardest-working recruiters, and both have demonstrated a keen eye for talent.

Toman, who has spent the last 11 years as an associate head coach under South Carolina’s Ray Tanner, has a connection with Liberty athletic director Jeff Barber, who was a senior associate athletics director at USC for 10 years before heading to Liberty in January of 2006. So when Matt Royer resigned after going 153-132 over five years, Toman was an obvious choice. The trick was getting him to leave South Carolina–you have to assume this hire represents a significant commitment from Liberty to the baseball program, because Toman had a sweet deal going in Columbia.

Toman is the third high-profile recruiting coordinator to land a head coaching job this month, following O’Sullivan and Turtle Thomas, who was hired away from Arizona State by Florida International. Next up could be North Carolina assistant coach Chad Holbrook, another outstanding recruiter who Western Carolina would be wise to target as a replacement for Todd Raleigh. WCU could be attractive to Holbrook, as it has proven a launching pad for its last four coaches: Jack Leggett (who left for Clemson), Keith LeClair (East Carolina), Rodney Hennon (Georgia Southern) and Raleigh (Tennessee).