Marc MacMillan Opens Up on His Decision to Leave Ole Miss for Charleston Southern

What made Marc MacMillan want to leave Ole Miss? What made Charleston Southern a good fit? What challenges is he facing in his next adventure?

Former Ole Miss assistant Marc MacMillan wasn't actively looking for a different job. It just sort of found him. 

Named the Charleston Southern head coach on May 15, MacMillan is still in Oxford and he will be for a little while. His wife, who is 37 weeks pregnant, is expecting very soon and their doctors are still here.

Besides, MacMillan reflects, the process was an incredibly fast one and he still really hasn't had a chance to wrap his mind around the past few weeks. 

Around May 5, MacMillan received a text from Charleston Southern Athletic Director Jeff Barber. The two had never met, but later that afternoon they chatted briefly for 30 minutes over the phone. The next day, they scheduled time for a 90 minute FaceTime. That call lasted over three hours. 

By that weekend, MacMillan was on a plane to Charleston and just a few days after returning to Oxford, he had been offered and accepted the job. 

"I was very interested in becoming a head coach again, and at the D1 level. But for that particular job, I had not applied," MacMillan said. "Once this all came about, we kind of felt like it was God's plan and it was time to take that next step."

As he wasn't currently looking to leave, Charleston Southern had to sell him a bit on the job. What MacMillan believes made it a good fit was the vision of the program and the mission of the athletic department. 

Charleston Southern President Dondi E. Costin is only in his second year and he's pouring more into the athletics program. Barber, according to MacMillan, shares his same vision of growth and improvement of the baseball program. 

"We both want a faith-based program that focus' on player development. Yes, on the field, but also beyond baseball. And then we want to win consistently. It was just a good, good mesh."

The problem is simple – it's a program that has never won consistently. 

Since the turn of the century, the Buccaneers baseball program has only one single winning season. 

How to turn around a program like that was a big part of the questions that MacMillan fielded in the interview process. 

He says the plan is to try and emulate the best, Mike Bianco. At times talking to MacMillan, some of the phrasings of his sentences and the way he talks sounds like the Ole Miss head coach. 

"There's a toughness that comes with it and a selflessness that comes with it. One of the things is just getting them to believe that they can do it, more than anything," MacMillan said. "It's raising expectations. I don't know what their expectations were before. Really, I didn't ask anybody. I think we work more, right now, more on the mental side – how to be at their best every day."

It's a process that will take some time – changes in culture don't happen overnight. 

And the process might be put on delay a bit. Between his expecting wife and the COVID-19 pandemic, MacMillan doesn't expect to move to Charleston until mid-June and is hopeful the family will join him in July. 

MacMillan certainly going to miss Ole Miss, he reflects. It's not just the place he coached at since 2014, but where he played his college ball from 1993-96. The decision to leave didn't come easy, but he felt like it was the right step in a long journey. 

"We were very happy here. We loved Oxford and we loved Ole Miss. We loved the coaches and their wives and the players and the fans," MacMillan reflected. "So, you know, that's a tough, tough thing to leave."

Four a longer snippet of The Grove Report's chat with MacMillan, see the video above. 

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