Joe Carnahan was named the Assistant Baseball Coach at The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College in December 2008.

Prior to his current position, Carnahan served as the Head Baseball Coach of  the Swift Current Indians of the Western Major Baseball League, a summer collegiate baseball organization. Carnahan led Swift Current to the 2008 regular season and Eastern Division Championship.

He previously served as Pitching Coach at the University of North Dakota in 2007 and as Assistant Baseball Coach for Northland College from 2003-2006.

He also worked as Assistant Coach at Swift Current during the summers from 2005-2007.

For five of his seven years playing for the Swift Current Indians, Carnahan was named their Most Valuable Player and a member of the WMBL championship teams in 2001, 2005, and 2006. In 2002 and 2004, Carnahan was named the WMBL's MVP, was named WMBL Playoff MVP in 2005, and WMBL All Star five times from 2002-07,

Carnahan received a Master of Science in Kinesiology from the University of North Dakota in 2008, a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from Northland College in 2005, and an Associate of Arts in Journalism from Iowa Western Community College in 2001.