re: Former LSU coach hits rock bottom

Unreal. Ray Tanner outpasses Scott Woodward for athletic director incompetence. His hires "Pulmonary", Shane Beamer and Lamont Paris have made college sports unwatchable at USCe. I can't believe they took a chance on Maineiri

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Everyone knew when SC hired him it was a mistake.

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Paul looked exhausted 5 years ago when he left. That hasn’t changed

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What has happened to USCar? They were so good in baseball in most of 2010s

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Ray Tanner retired from coaching to become AD.

He then hired Chad Holbrook who was under him when he was coaching, it didnt work out, 2 of his last 3 years at USCe he didnt make the tournament; in 3 of his last 4 years there he didnt make a super even. He went over to College of Charleston where he has yet to make the NCAAT the last 8 seasons (1 was covid year). CoC had made the tournament quite a few times before he got there as well, just not a good coach.

Tanner then hired Mark Kingston from USF who didnt really have some fantastic history. He made a couple regionals in 3 seasons at USF but had a real bad year sandwiched in there. He failed to make the CWS after 7 years at USCe, made a super twice, but the first time was his first year. So last 6 seasons the further they got was a Super once. Neither super was at USCe either. Kingston was fired, went over to Creighton to be an assistant last year and is their HC this year and is 2-4 to start the year.

Then Tanner hired a 66 (almost 67) year old retired Mainieri, why? Nobody really could tell you. But certainly looks like strike #3 in baseball coach hiring for Tanner. The dude retired from coaching when he was only 52 to become the AD at USCe and most would say he's failed pretty badly in that role not just for baseball but other sports as well at USCe.

He should just can Mainieri after this season and go back for a few years for a farewell tour coaching the baseball team. USCe fans wouldnt even care about the results, just happy to have him back for a little bit

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when he wore a younger man's clothes.

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when he was talking to Davy, who's still in the Navy?

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It was always difficult to like Paul Mainieri, but it was clear he was done several years before he was pushed out from LSU.

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I dont about several, we made the championship series literally in 2017 and most of us were still riding quite high then.

Then 2018 was a bit of a letdown being sent out to Corvallis for a regional where OSU absolutely emasculated us 2x. Not the end of the world after being in the title series though the previous season.

In 2019 we had a good season, had a home regional which we fairly easily went 3-0 in...then FSU came to town for a super and we lost 2 super close games....pretty disappointing end to the season but the program still looked to be on decent footing I'd say despite losing a home super in 2 games. Certainly the roster wasn't exactly where we'd want it, but losing a couple close super games is not a bad season overall.

2020 happened and obviously the year was cut short, but the cracks were starting to really show even in that shortened season. We started 12-5 with losses including Indiana, Baylor, Nicholls and Eastern Kentucky none of which looked particularly good. We just seemed kind of incapable of putting together really good offense most games. 3 of those 5 losses were 0-1, 0-2 and 2-4. Imagine a Jay Johnson LSU team in OOC play scoring 4 runs or less in 7 of his first 17 games of the season

2021 comes along we have a disappointing season going 13-17 in the SEC, got sent to Eugene as a 3 seed...actually pulled off winning that regional after losing the 1st game only to get sent to Knoxville for a super and get completely emasculated out of the tournament 6-15 in our final game. We ended up 0-5 against Tennessee that season. I guess nice pulling off a regional championship as a 3 seed but the creaks were just way way too noticeable at this point and the program just seemed headed in the wrong direction like we couldnt compete with the best the SEC had to offer and just had completely fallen behind there....it was time to move on pretty obviously at that point. About to go into the NIL era coming up we needed someone who could navigate that and it wasn't going to be Mainieri.

I will NEVER understand that hire. Unless your goal was to sabotage the program.

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He should just can Mainieri after this season and go back for a few years for a farewell tour coaching the baseball team. USCe fans wouldnt even care about the results, just happy to have him back for a little bit

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Tanner isn't the AD anymore.

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We play USCe later this year, too.

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hopefully coach Maineri is still there at that point so he can see his return trip to Baton Rouge

Mainieri's Mosquito Ball, is killing South Carolina, just like he did at LSU