Tim Corbin

When he was introduced as Vanderbilt head coach on June 25, 2002, Tim Corbin noted the appeal of blending an Ivy League education with Southeastern Conference baseball. He didn’t stop there. By leading Vanderbilt to the 2014 and 2019 NCAA championships, launching dozens of MLB careers and mentoring student-athletes for lifelong growth, Corbin has transformed the VandyBoys into a standard of excellence all their own in collegiate athletics.

Inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2020, Corbin reached 1,000 career wins on March 5, 2024, with a 6-2 victory over Eastern Michigan. Corbin’s 1027-581-1 (.639) career record entering the 2025 season ranks among active Division I leaders in both overall wins and winning percentage.

He is the winningest coach in Vanderbilt history, entering the 2025 season with a 921-443-1 (.675) record at the school.

Prior to Corbin becoming the program’s 21st head coach, Vanderbilt hadn’t earned a spot in the SEC Tournament in a decade or the NCAA Tournament in more than three decades. He made the postseason a regular part of the calendar for the VandyBoys and their faithful.

Highlighted by the 2014 and 2019 national titles, Vanderbilt has made five trips to the College World Series since 2011. Four of those trips to Omaha have come since 2014, with the Dores reaching the championship series on all four occasions.

• Vanderbilt’s streak of 18 consecutive NCAA Tournament berths is the longest active streak in Division I.

The VandyBoys have also thrived in the toughest conference in the country. Corbin led team to SEC regular season titles in 2007, 2011 (co-champions), 2013 and 2019. Prior to his arrival, Vanderbilt had won just two regular season titles—and none since 1980.

Corbin is also the architect of three of the four SEC Tournament championships in program history. The Commodores swept the regular season and tournament titles in 2007 and 2013 and also won the tournament in Hoover, Alabama, for a third time under Corbin in 2023.

For his work, Corbin is a three-time SEC Coach of the Year (2007, 2013, 2019) and two-time National Coach of the Year (2014, 2019).

Corbin has mentored 55 All-Americans through the 2024 season, including 21 first-team selections. Additionally, 31 players have been honored as freshman All-Americans.

• He has coached eight Golden Spikes Award finalists, including 2007 winner David Price, who also won the Dick Howser Award that season.
• Dansby Swanson (2015) and Kumar Rocker (2021) were also honored by prestigious national organizations as National Players of the Year, while Price (2007) and Carson Fulmer (2015) were honored as National Pitchers of the Year.

In addition to molding successful college teams, Corbin has earned a reputation as one of the game’s foremost mentors and talent developers for the next level.

More than 30 players he tutored have gone on to play in Major League Baseball. Former Dores have won Cy Young (David Price), Gold Glove (Dansby Swanson) and Silver Slugger (Pedro Alvarez) awards, while making 18 All-Star appearance and winning five World Series rings (Walker Buehler twice, Price, Swanson and Kyle Wright).

Entering the 2025 season, multiple Commodores have been selected in every MLB Draft since 2004. In all, he’s helped an NCAA-leading 152 players be selected since 2003.

• Vanderbilt is one of four colleges to have multiple No. 1 picks (David Price and Dansby Swanson) since the draft was instituted in 1965.
• Vanderbilt was the first school to have the first overall pick (Price) and second overall pick (Pedro Alvarez) in consecutive drafts.

Below are Vanderbilt’s first-round picks under Corbin.

• 2023: Enrique Bradfield, Jr. (No. 17, Baltimore Orioles)
• 2022: Spencer Jones (No. 25, New York Yankees)
• 2021: Jack Leiter (No. 2, Texas Rangers)
• 2021: Kumar Rocker (No. 10, New York Mets)
• 2020: Austin Martin (No. 5, Toronto Blue Jays)
• 2019: JJ Bleday (No. 4, Florida Marlins)
• 2017: Kyle Wright (No. 5, Atlanta Braves)
• 2017: Jeren Kendell (No. 23, Los Angeles Dodgers)
• 2016: Jordan Sheffield (No. 36, Los Angeles Dodgers)
• 2015: Dansby Swanson (No. 1, Arizona Diamondbacks)
• 2015: Carson Fulmer (No. 8, Chicago White Sox)
• 2015: Walker Buehler (No. 24, Los Angeles Dodgers)
• 2014: Tyler Beede (No. 14, San Francisco Giants)
• 2011: Sonny Gray (No. 18, Oakland Athletics)
• 2011: Grayson Garvin (No. 59, Tampa Bay Rays)
• 2009: Mike Minor (No. 7, Atlanta Braves)
• 2008: Pedro Alvarez (No. 2, Pittsburgh Pirates)
• 2008: Ryan Flaherty (No. 41, Chicago Cubs)
• 2007: David Price (No. 1, Tampa Bay Rays)
• 2007: Casey Weathers (No. 8, Colorado Rockies)
• 2006: Jeremy Sowers (No. 6, Cleveland Guardians)

Early years: Blueprint in Progress

Corbin’s first Vanderbilt team finished 27-28 in 2003. While it remains his only season with fewer than 30 wins at Vanderbilt, it was also the most wins for a Vandy team in six years.  And after finishing second in the SEC Eastern Division, sweeping Tennessee in the final regular season series, Vanderbilt earned a conference tournament berth for the first time in a decade.

In a preview of the attention to detail that soon became a program hallmark, that team broke school single-season records for fielding percentage (.972), fewest errors (60), most saves (15) and fewest walks allowed (168). They would soon break them all repeatedly.

A year later, Vanderbilt returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 24 years and advanced to a super regional for the first time ever. The Commodores were the first team in NCAA history to advance that far after posting a losing record the previous year.

With Corbin’s success and methods quickly earning rave reviews, he managed a USA Baseball national team to a 28-2-1 record and gold medal at the 2006 International University Sports Federation World University Championship in Havana, Cuba.

By 2007, Vanderbilt earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and hosted a regional for the first time after sweeping the SEC regular season and tournament titles. Amassing a school-record 54 wins, the team also achieved a No. 1 national ranking for the first time in school history and held that honor for 13 of 15 weeks during the regular season. David Price was honored as SEC Pitcher of the Year, the first in program history.

After piling up the second-most wins in program history at that time and winning the Louisville Regional in 2010, Vanderbilt ascended to even greater heights with its magical run to the 2011 College World Series. The Dores swept through a home regional and super regional, the first super regional at Hawkins Field, and won two games in Omaha in the program’s first CWS appearance. Grayson Garvin was honored as SEC Pitcher of the Year, while Tony Kemp was recognized as SEC Freshman of the Year.

The Dores were at it again in 2013, winning 54 games to match the program record set in 2007 and tied in 2011. Their SEC regular season championship was the second in three years and third under Corbin, who was named SEC Coach of the Year for the second time. Vanderbilt’s 26-3 record in SEC games smashed the conference standard. They won every regular season series, including nine sweeps.

Five Commodores earned All-America honors, and first-team All-American Tony Kemp became just the second Commodore to win SEC Player of the Year.

2014: A breakthrough championship

The Commodores won 51 games in 2014, the third time in four seasons that the team eclipsed a 50-win mark never reached before Corbin arrived. Getting there involved slightly more significant history, with the final two wins against Virginia in the College World Series finishing off the program’s first national championship and just the second team national championship in any sport in school history.

The Vanderbilt skipper was named the consensus national coach of the year, while Victor Conde and Dansby Swanson earned All-SEC and All-America honors and Bryan Reynolds and Hayden Stone picked up freshman All-America honors. As an exclamation point on a season to remember, Walker Buehler, Carson Fulmer, Reynolds and Swanson suited up for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team in the weeks after the World Series, matching that national team’s record for players from one school.

Corbin led the Dores back to the 2015 World Series, narrowly missing out on back-to-back national titles after an epic championship series rematch against Virginia. While winning at least 50 games for a third year in a row, the Dores put together a nine-game winning streak during the NCAA Tournament, matched a Division I postseason record with 21 runs in a win against Radford and won a road super regional for the first time by eliminating Illinois.

Swanson was named 2015 National Player of the Year by D1Baseball.com and Perfect Game and earned the Brooks Wallace Award as the nation’s top shortstop. Fulmer was named National Pitcher of the Year and was Vanderbilt’s third SEC Pitcher of the Year after becoming just the fourth pitcher in the league’s history to win the pitching triple crown (wins, ERA and strikeouts). The duo also became the second pair of Vanderbilt teammates to be Golden Spikes finalists in the same year, joining Price and Alvarez from 2007. Corbin has had a hand in three of the first four instances in which teammates were finalists, having coached Khalil Greene and Jeff Baker when they achieved it at Clemson.

2019: A championship sequel to savor 

Vanderbilt posted an SEC-record 59 wins during its historic 2019 “treble,” winning the program’s second national championship after sweeping the SEC regular season and tournament titles. The No. 2 national seed, the Commodores rallied from an opening setback in the championship series against Michigan to become the second program in school history with multiple national titles.

Fittingly, the dominant Commodores set single-season program records in home runs (100), RBIs (541), walks (339), runs (578) and strikeouts (765).

For his efforts leading one of the most successful teams in college baseball history, Corbin was named ABCA and Collegiate Baseball’s national coach of the year.

Rocker etched his name into Commodore lore by becoming the first pitcher to toss a no-hitter in an NCAA super regional, striking out 19 batters against Duke. D1Baseball and Baseball America’s National Freshman of the Year then went on to earn College World Series Most Outstanding Player honors.

Following NCAA cancelation of the 2020 season and College World Series, Vanderbilt returned to Omaha in 2021 and, once again, came heartbreakingly close to winning back-to-back national titles. After thrilling comebacks against Arizona and Stanford in bracket play, capped by Spencer Jones scoring on a walk-off wild pitch against the Cardinal in an elimination game, Vanderbilt advanced to the championship series against Mississippi State before eventually settling for second place after an epic three-game series.

Entering the 2025 season, Vanderbilt had active streaks of 20 consecutive seasons with at least 30 wins and an NCAA-best 18 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

Architect of the Hawk

In addition to the on-field successes, the baseball program itself has had significant upgrades to the facilities with a new fieldhouse, complete with new locker rooms for players, coaches and Commodore alums playing professional baseball. Also included were coach’s offices, a classroom that overlooks Hawkins Field and a new weight room.

In 2009, permanent seats in the outfield pushed Hawkins Field seating capacity to double the amount when Corbin arrived in 2003. The playing surface was replaced during the summer of 2012 with a synthetic surface that minimizes disruptions due to fickle Nashville springs.

As part of the university’s Dare to Grow campaign, Vanderbilt has also announced plans to enhance Hawkins Field. A centerpiece of the historic Vandy United effort, the project will create extensive premium seating opportunities, expand capacity and reimagine the game day experience for supporters of one of college baseball’s most successful programs.

Path to Vanderbilt

Corbin came to Vanderbilt following nine seasons as an assistant coach at Clemson (1994-2002), finishing as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator. In that span, the Tigers won more than 71 percent of their games and two Atlantic Coast Conference regular season titles, made nine appearances in the NCAA Tournament and reached the College World Series four times. Earning a reputation as one of the most respected assistant coaches in the country, he helped sign top-25 ranked recruiting classes in each of his nine seasons and mentored 20 All-Americans and 36 MLB draft selections.

In 2000, Corbin was honored as National Assistant Coach of the Year by Baseball America and the ABCA and served under Southern California coach Mike Gillespie as an assistant with USA Baseball. The Americans won gold at the World Championships in the Netherlands, setting a national program record with a .900 winning percentage.

Prior to his tenure at Clemson, Corbin was head coach at Presbyterian College for six seasons beginning in 1988. He restarted a dormant baseball program and oversaw the transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II status. Along the way, the Blue Hose made three consecutive appearances in the South Atlantic playoffs (1991-93), and Corbin earned South Atlantic Coach of the Year honors in 1990.

He is an alumnus of Ohio Wesleyan, Class of 1984.