Wait, what?
Here’s something I never thought I’d write: Paul Mainieri is back in the coaching game.
Monday afternoon it was reported that the former Tiger skipper has been lured out of retirement to take the head coaching position at South Carolina. Teddy Cahill of Baseball America and Kendall Rogers at D1 Baseball were among the first to have the scoop.
If we’re looking at this from just purely a credentials standpoint, this is a home run hire by South Carolina. Mainieri has amassed over 1,500 wins in his 39-year career. He’ll be the active leader in wins (1,505) when the 2025 season begins. At LSU he led LSU to the 2009 national championship and took the Tigers to Omaha on four other occasions, including a runner up finish in 2017. LSU won the SEC West six times, the SEC regular season title four times, and the SEC Tournament six times in the Mainieri era.
Mainieri posted a 641-285-3 record in his 15 seasons at LSU and his .692 winning percentage is the third best in league history behind only Skip Bertman and, fittingly enough, former South Carolina head coach Ray Tanner. Tanner is now Mainieri’s AD at South Carolina. The Tigers earned a national seed for the NCAA Tournament nine times, including a run of six consecutive seasons from 2012-2017. Stanford is the only other program to accomplish a similar feat, doing so between 1999-2004.
There is no doubt in the world that Mainieri is qualified to be a head coach of an SEC program. But Carolina tapping Mainieri now, heading into the 2025 season, is…interesting to say the least.
Mainieri will be 67 years old by the time first pitch rolls around next February. He also of course retired following the 2021 season and has been out of the game in each of the past three seasons. His 2009 national championship is going on 16 years ago and his last Omaha trip will have been eight years ago.
Mainieri also got out of college athletics before NIL became a thing and the transfer portal has turned into what it is now. And for a man who by his own omission retired because of health issues, is this really something he wants to do?
Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel via Imagn Content Services, LLC
Who knows, maybe the three years away has recharged Mainieri’s batteries. Remember, a year ago his name was being floated for the head coaching job at Miami, and the year before that he was being linked to Notre Dame, where he spent 11 years at before coming to Baton Rouge. Maybe he truly misses coaching and getting to return to the SEC was too good an opportunity to pass up.
Mainieri will replace Mark Kingston, who was fired after the Gamecocks were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament. And if you’re wondering, yes LSU will play the Gamecocks in Columbia next season. Sorry Coach, but you’ll be Tiger Bait when that weekend comes around.