re: Mainieri says he underestimated the strength of the conference these days

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They kind of need to take the Florida State/UConn approach. Link Jarrett uses every smaller conference school in Florida essentially as a feeder program for FSU. UConn does something similar but with like D3 schools in the Northeast.

There are enough players in the Carolinas that make it to smaller schools and then blow up that they should be able to get a decent portal crop each year.

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i agree but that would take effort on PM part. He hates to leave campus and he treats people like shite and that they are beneath him. Heard the same story over and over again from recruits that he would bring them to his office and first thing he would say would be.....do you understand how lucky you are for me to even be speaking to you...then go on a tirade about how the recruit should be bowing down

not one time did I hear a recruit say he had a plan laid out for development and how the kid could help the team or really even know a ton about the recruit


not to mention Paul has been behind on the sports science, pitch dev and performance training side for a decade now.

sorry for the rant...i dont exactly have a lot of love loss for Paul, respect what he did but the way he treeated people and his lack of accountability.

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might have seemed like 7 but it was only 3

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He retired after 2017, so your math is off.

Never a fan of Paul. Happy to see him embarrassing himself.

It sounds like another example of a longtime coach who didn't fully embrace (or accept) college sports have COMPLETELY changed from what they were 4-5 years ago.

Currently the landscape is unfettered free agency where the players hold a large portion of the leverage. Paul's last season was 2021, which was before freedom of transferring had fully bloomed in college baseball. Sounds like he wasn't prepared at all for what the sport had become in the 3 years he was out.

I realize my above post sounds a little arrogant so ill list out some gripes:
His assistants. He hung on to Javi and Alan Dunn way too long and should've moved Cain off 3B.
The lack of recruiting towards the end. His 2019 class had Jacob Hasty and Rye Gunter and I'm pretty sure that was it for pitching
The roster construction - just recruit a bunch of HS SS and stick them wherever and end up with the same guy 1-9. Or just forget that you don't have a single LHP on your roster.
Not knowing his players (discovering two way guys late such as Jones, Haydel, and Bain or not knowing Hellmers shouldn't be on 3B)
The vast overreaction to TD Ameritrade and trying to turn LSU into a small ball team for a couple years
The jump on the 1st pitch plate approach even when you're facing someone's Friday night Ace who you know can pitch backwards and you need to get his pitch count up and get him out of the game.
Bullpen management - he would change pitchers too much which in my opinion is a huge mistake in college, especially back then when the talent level was a lot lower. The more college RPs you put in the game the more likely you are to find one who doesn't have it that night.
Lineup construction- the most embarrassing thing I'll remember was against A&M in one of Childress' last games.

Game 1 it's 1-1 in the 8th with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd. Childress IBBs Dylan Crews to put the winning run on 3B for 3 hole hitter Brody Drost who Ks, with Beloso on your bench. Not great but not totally embarrassing. However the following night, he doesnt learn his lesson.
Game is tied up in the top of the 11th with a runner on 2nd and 2 outs. Crews is IBB again. Then Dugas is IBB to load the bases for our cleanup hitter.....Mitchell Sanford who strikes out. You had Beloso, Doughty and Arnold on that team but we repeatedly saw guys like Sanford and Milazzo bat in the 4 hole with Morgan/Crews on base in front of them. Childress just completely disrespected the middle of our lineup all weekend. He tried to do it again in the 13th inning but this time he intentionally walked the bases loaded and Mainieri finally learns and PH Arnold for Sanford who delivered with a base hit.

Paul will never take blame for his shortcomings of coaching. Now he is blaming the size of the players and at LSU he constantly threw his players under the bus. He is a loser. Curious how long SC holds on to him

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Bruh. You can't say that to the media.

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Pretty much. Mainieri was always honest. And the fans would jump on him at times for it. Often it was an unfair attack.

In this case, he’s explaining the challenge the program faces. I don’t think he’s running from it. It’s probably the opposite.

But, there’s no doubt he’s going to be attacked for it because the reality is so ugly.

They’re saying he pretty much “mailed it in” and coasted after 2017, if not earlier. Of course his actual retirement was in 2021, but the biggest criticism of Paul was that he didn’t grind and work his arse off after 2009 and coasted on the LSU brand. There’s probably some truth to that… probably also true it is sometimes overblown a tad because he certainly kept LSU elite.

All that said, I still appreciate what Paul did… he’s a hall-of-famer, rightfully so. He was a consistent winner, no doubt. And annually - for a decade+ long time period - had LSU consistently in the Top5-10 where it belongs. But he arguably could have done more (ie more titles) in his LSU tenure if he would have worked harder.

Win or lose with Jay, we’ve now got a coach that puts in 110% effort 24/7. Putting in the work will never be an issue with JJ, at least anytime soon. Jay is working as hard if not harder to get the second title as he did to get the first.

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He’s a horrible coach now

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he was never any good... lsu made him, not the other way around... no different than les miles