re: And just like that...

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He’s won one title...and that was 2009.

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Exactly! He is a championship coach.

Care to name how many other coaches have won more than one since Mainieri got to LSU?...TWO. One was Pat Casey who got his 2nd Mainieri's first year at LSU and the other is Ray Tanner, who isn't even coaching anymore.

The point being? Our fans continue to expect today for someone to come along and duplicate what Skip did in the 90's, and the likelihood of that happening in today's game is unlikely. Blame it on scholarship restrictions...increased focus on baseball and resources at a lot more schools/conferences...increased focus on little league development across the country...hell, blame it on the bats, cause it sure seems to be a common excuse. But the reality is that parity is at an all time high in the sport (see Coastal Carolina...who??...winning a championship) and it is a lot harder to win the CWS.

The most that fans can realistically expect and ask for is to put a team on the field each year that can get into post-season play and CWS on a regular basis and then see what happens. And Mainieri has done that to the tune of having SIX national seed teams in a row and making the CWS at an average of once every 2 years.

The coach recruits, develops, and puts the best 9 out there. But by the time the CWS rolls around, it is way more about players executing at that point. Last year, LSU played well enough (most of the season/CWS) and had the talent to win it all; but Florida executed better and LSU caught some bad luck (pitching injuries) at the wrong time. It is just how the game is now, and you can't really ask for (or name) a better or more proven coach in the country right now.