Lipscomb University

A two-time Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year selection, the 2025 season marks the 19th for Jeff Forehand as the head coach of the Lipscomb University baseball program.

After being named the 15th coach in the history of the storied Lipscomb program in 2007, Forehand has racked up over 600 collegiate wins and sits as the winningest skipper in the program’s NCAA era with a 480-503 record.

His overall record as a collegiate head coach is 691-451-1 (.517) in 24 seasons. He earned his 600th career win on February 19, 2022 with a decisive 12-4 victory over Akron – only the second game of the season.

During his tenure, Forehand has led the Bisons to three ASUN Championships and the only three NCAA Tournament appearances in program history in 2008, 2015 and 2023.

He has mentored 63 All-ASUN selections and 13 superlative award winners, including 11 First Team All-Conference selections, 21 Freshman All-ASUN selections, three ASUN Defensive Players of the Year, two ASUN Tournament MVPs, two ASUN Scholar Athletes of the Year, two ASUN Pitchers of the Year, and one ASUN Freshman of the Year.

In addition, Forehand has coached one All-American, four Freshman All-Americans, five All-Region honorees and the program’s first-ever ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove recipient in 2017 – one of only nine to be honored in Division I.

His peers in the ASUN selected him as the league's coach of the year in 2022 and 2023.

Having players drafted is nothing new for Forehand as 17 of his student-athletes have received the call on draft day – including a program record three in 2017. There have been 33 total draftees in Lipscomb’s history, with the most recent being Hayden Frank in the 15th round by the Chicago Cubs. 

Casey Bond, who played in the Hollywood feature film Moneyball, and John King got the trend started in Forehand’s first season in 2007 as both were selected by the San Francisco Giants.  A right-handed pitcher, King was a 17th-round selection, while Bond got the call in the 25th round.  Also, among the Lipscomb standouts who have been drafted under Forehand are right-handed pitcher Ike Buxton, drafted by the Miami Marlins in the 15th round in 2022, catcher Caleb Joseph, who was drafted in the 7th round by the Baltimore Orioles in 2008, and righty hurler Josh Smith, who was chosen by the Cincinnati Reds in the 21st round in 2010. 

Highlighting the draftees under Forehand’s direction was the 2017 class. Center fielder Michael Gigliotti was a fourth round pick by the Kansas City Royals, right-handed hurler Brady Puckett was taken in the 15th round by the Miami Marlins and Jeffrey Passantino heard his named called as the last selection of the draft by the defending champion Chicago Cubs in the 40th round.

It marked the first time in program history that the Bisons had multiple players chosen in the first 15 rounds of the draft, with the second coming in 2023 with Logan Van Treeck and Caleb Ketchup. 

Prior to his arrival, Lipscomb had not posted a winning season since joining Division I as a full member in 2004.

After finishing just two games shy of .500 in his first season (28-30) in 2007, the Bisons posted a 33-30 overall mark and won a program-record 19 conference games en route to the team’s first-ever ASUN title and NCAA postseason berth in 2008.

A major underdog, Lipscomb traveled to Athens, Georgia, taking out host Georgia in the opening round of the NCAA Tourney before falling to Georgia Tech in round two. That setup a rematch with the Bulldogs and Georgia prevailed in round two ending the Bisons first NCAA Regional.

Forehand’s 2009 club came within one win of back-to-back trips to the NCAA tournament falling in the A-Sun championship game.  That season would see another milestone for Forehand’s program as pitcher Rex Brothers would become the second Lipscomb player drafted in the top round of the Major League Baseball draft.  Taken as the 34th overall pick in the draft by the Colorado Rockies, the hard-throwing lefty made a quick rise to the majors making his MLB debut June 6th, 2011 with a 96-mph fastball against the San Diego Padres.

With the departure of a number of key contributors to graduation and the MLB Draft, Forehand and the Bisons went the next five seasons without ever winning more than 25 games or anything better than a 4^th-place finish in the ASUN.

     2009: (24-32, 17-13 ASUN)
     2010: (19-36, 9-17 ASUN)
     2011: (19-36, 10-20 ASUN)
     2012: (25-30, 14-13 ASUN)
     2013: (25-34, 13-14 ASUN)

Those results didn’t stop Forehand and his staff from making headlines on the recruiting trail. Forehand’s 2015 signing class was the highest-ranked class in program history, according to Perfect Game’s rankings. Lipscomb finished with the 56^th-best class, trailing only Vanderbilt (1^st) and Tennessee (42^nd) inside the state lines.

In 2014 Lipscomb got off to a slow 2-8 start before heating up in a hurry. The Bisons stung together a NCAA-era best 10-game win streak and won 14 of their next 15 games to put together a 33-28 overall record – tying the then record for wins in a season in the NCAA era.

The team rolled into the ASUN Championship as the No. 4 seed, but after knocking off top seed and host FGCU twice, Lipscomb won its way into the championship series with Kennesaw State.

Offense was hard to come by against the Owls as the team stranded 12 runners on base in a 7-1 loss. KSU parlayed that win into a Super Regional berth.

In 2015, Forehand pioneered the best season in the program’s NCAA era winning a school record 39 games. It was the first time the Bisons had won at least 30 games in back-to-back seasons in Division I era.

Closing the season as road warriors with 15-straight wins on the road, the Bisons clinched the No. 2 seed as the traveled to Fort Myers, Florida for the ASUN Championship.

Great pitching and timely hitting powered Lipscomb’s 4-0 record in the championship with back-to-back victories over top-seeded North Florida – who possessed one of the most potent offenses in the country.

In the title game, Forehand made one of the best moves of his career going to freshman Allan Hooker off the bench as a pinch hitter. After going down three runs after three innings, Hooker blasted a go-ahead 3-run bomb in the top of the fourth to give Lipscomb a 5-3 lead and it never looked back en route to a dog pile at the mound when the final out was made.

The Bisons didn’t have to travel far as the committee sent them down the road to the Vanderbilt Regional.  Earlier in the season on April 7 in a midweek at Hawkins Field, Lipscomb earned a 3-1 victory over then-No. 1 Vandy behind a 7.1-inning gem from freshman Brady Puckett – it was the fewest runs for the Dores in 29 games.

The NCAA Tournament matchup was a different story however, facing an MLB first rounder in Carson Fulmer. Vandy rode the hard-throwing righty to a 9-1 win in front of more than 3,600 fans in attendance. The very next day, the Bisons’ season came to an end with a 5-2 loss to No. 2 Radford.

In 2016, the Bisons put together a third straight 30-win season after finishing 31-27 overall and 12-9 in the ASUN for a fourth-place finish.

Puckett – as a sophomore – was voted unanimously the ASUN’s Pitcher of the Year and earned a Louisville Slugger Third Team All-American nod. He tossed his way to a 9-2 record and a 2.93 ERA in 15 starts. He led the league in wins, strikeouts (101), innings pitched (107.2) and ASUN Pitcher of the Week awards (4).

Lipscomb hosted the ASUN Tournament and downed Jacksonville 10-8 in the first round, but eventually dropped games against North Florida and FGCU to end the year.

Forehand entered the 2017 with arguably the most talented roster in program history and one that was thought to be the best in the ASUN. The head coaches around the league voted Lipscomb the ASUN preseason favorite for the first time in program history. The team didn’t quite live up to that billing as it came down to the last game of the regular season for the Bisons to clinch the No. 6 seed.

After falling to Jacksonville in the first round, the Bisons upended host and No. 2 seed Stetson, 8-6. They then fell to FGCU the next day to end the season.

With a new roster that saw 10 players leave due to graduation and the MLB Draft, Lipscomb took its growing pains in stride in 2018, finishing 24-30. The marquee win came on March 27 at First Tennessee Park where the Bisons took down No. 8 Vanderbilt, 5-1, while holding them to just one hit.

In June of 2018, Forehand had his 12^th player selected in the draft when the San Diego Padres called the name of second baseman Lee Solomon.

The 2020 season was a unique one for Forehand and his squad. This Bisons got out to a quick start and set a program record by winning the first six games of the season. However, due to the unforeseen circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the season was brought to a halt and canceled with just 16 games being played out of the scheduled 53. Lipscomb went 11-5 in those 16 games. 

The shortened 2021 season saw an 11-11 home record for the Bisons, on their way to an 18-29 overall record for the season with eight of their matchups canceled. The squad interspersed their season with attention-grabbing victories, including a 4-1 triumph over SEC opponent #4 Tennessee at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on April 27.

Forehand hit a major coaching milestone in the second game of the 2022 season as he hit 600 wins in a 12-4 home victory over Akron to kick off the season on a strong note. The Bisons logged a 35-23 record including a 20-10 record against conference opponents. Forehand's 2022 team logged six series sweeps and saw two of their members to the pros as right-handed pitcher Ike Buxton was drafted by the Miami Marlins in the 15th round of the MLB draft and Trey Nordmann signed with the Baltimore Orioles in July.

Lipscomb finished the 2022 season with a 35-23 overall record and a 20-10 ASUN record, improving from just 18 wins during the 2021 season. The Bisons won the ASUN West Regular Season Championship, Lipscomb Baseball's first regular season title since the 2008 season. Building off of that stellar 2022 season, Forehand's 2023 ball club won both the regular season and tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for just the third time in program history. Forehand is now eager to begin their 2024 season, returning a health number of guys from the 2023 Championship team. 

The 2024 season saw the Bisons go 22-34 on the campaign and 15-15 in the ASUN. Playing four SEC teams in Kentucky, Alabama, Vanderbilt and Tennessee, the Bisons picked up a huge midweek win over the No. 3 Vols, who eventually became the national champions of Division I baseball, on April 30.

Prior to taking over the Lipscomb program in 2007, Forehand had a highly successful stint across town at Trevecca Nazarene where he led the Trojans to a 211-142-1 in six seasons.  At Trevecca, Forehand earned 2004 NAIA Region XI Coach of the year and was twice named TransSouth Conference Coach of the Year in 2004 and 2005.  The Trojans also excelled in the classroom as the team grade point average increased a half a point in his tenure.

While at Trevecca, Forehand saw three players have their names called on draft day as Mario Campos (Red Sox, 2001), B.J. Jenkins (San Diego Padres, 2004) and Brad Coon (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 2005) each were selected.

Before taking over the Trojan’s program, Forehand got his head-coaching start at Nashville’s Goodpasture Christian School where in seven seasons he won three state titles (1995, 1997, 1999).  He is also a three-time Tennessee State Coach of the Year honoree winning the award each of those three years.  Prior to taking over the Goodpasture program, Forehand served as an assistant coach from 1990-92 under his father, Fred, at Montgomery Bell Academy.

A native of the “Music City”, the former second baseman played college ball at nearby Belmont under coach Dave Whitten graduating in 1989. Forehand also holds a Masters of Education degree from Tennessee State.

A lifelong resident of the city of Nashville, Forehand and his wife, Karen, have two sons, Gant and Brooks.