We were treated to a Monday bombshell in SEC baseball coaching news.
According to D1Baseball managing editor Kendall Rogers, South Carolina is expected to hire former LSU coach [autotag]Paul Mainieri[/autotag] for its vacant head coaching position. He will replace Mark Kingston, who was fired on June 3 after seven seasons in Columbia.
It’s a return to college baseball for Mainieri, who coached the Tigers from 2007 until his retirement in 2021. While in Baton Rouge, Mainieri’s teams reached the College World Series five times, winning a national title in 2009 and finishing as the runner-up in 2017.
News of the Gamecocks targeting Mainieri was first reported by Baseball America’s Teddy Cahill.
Sources: South Carolina is targeting Paul Mainieri to be its next coach. https://t.co/gJnwfURAMj
— Teddy Cahill (@tedcahill) June 10, 2024
🚨BREAKING: Paul Mainieri is expected to be named the new head baseball coach at @GamecockBasebll, @d1baseball has learned. Mainieri guided #LSU to the 2009 national championship and has tallied more than 1,500 wins in his career. Kudos to @tedcahill for 1st mentioning poss. pic.twitter.com/d07XDCEL3o
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) June 10, 2024
South Carolina is looking to get back to the level of dominance that saw the team win back-to-back national titles under former coach and current athletic director Ray Tanner. His successors haven’t lived up to that success as the program hasn’t reached Omaha since Tanner’s final season in 2012.
If the Gamecocks can land Mainieri, one of the most successful coaches in the modern era of college baseball, they could be able to do just that.
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