Baseball: Paul Mainieri Introductory News Conference 06/13/24

Athletics Director Ray Tanner held a news conference on Thursday, where he introduced Paul Mainieri as the next head baseball coach at the University of South Carolina

all right uh good afternoon my name is Steve Frank I’m an associate athletic director here at the University of South Carolina it’s my pleasure to welcome you to today’s press conference as we formally introduce our new baseball coach uh for those of you media folks that were here yesterday the format will be much the uh the same as it was yesterday uh we’ll hear from Athletics director Ray Tanner who will then introduce the new coach uh at that time coach maner will make his opening statements and we’ll open up for questions uh following the press conference uh TVs will have one-on-one opportunities with the head coach um over here to the left as we did yesterday and at that time we’ll also make coach Tanner and assistant coaches Monty Lee and Cherry Rooney available to the BD as well uh with that I will turn the program over to Athletics director Ray [Applause] Tanner thank you for that golf clap that was a little bit little bit week as I often do I get off script at times I promise you that I will be short but uh before we begin the announcement today I’d like to introduce to you the first lady of baseball and the wife of our new head baseball coach Karen maniri please welcome Karen we’ve had a few good talks already so I look forward to that coach Maneri will be our 31st coach in the history history of South Carolina baseball as of today he is the active leader in career wins in division one baseball with 155 wins only one of five division one coaches in NCAA history have won over 1500 games and have a national championship by their name at LSU he won a 2009 National Championship he paved the way for others in 2017 he was a national runner up listen at the next stat he made six College World Series appearances five with LSU one with Notre Dame he won four SEC championships six SEC tournament championships and 10 NCAA Regional championships he was a two-time sec coach of the year and a four-time national coach of the year he was at LSU for 15 Seasons 11 of the 14 full seasons remember we had the co Interruption he won 11 of 14 years he won at least one Championship that would be either the regular season the tournament Championship a Regional Championship a Super Regional Championship or an or a College World Series National Championship his players have earned first team All-American recognition on 13 occasions and he has 25 former players that have been in the big leagues his coaching stin have been at St Thomas University Air Force Notre Dame and as I mentioned LSU he’s won 70% of all the games that he’s coached that’s the fourth highest winning percentage in SEC history trailing only the legendary skip burtman the young Tony vatel from Tennessee and another guy that youve forgotten already under coacher the Tigers earn NCAA National seed in six consecutive years National seeds in six consecutive years only one other team in history has done that that is Stanford he’s a member of the American baseball coaches association Hall of Fame and I’ll share a a fact with you that is solely from the maner family his late father Demi maner who was a great coach in his own right won over a thousand games he’s also an American baseball coaches Hall of Fame it’s the only fatherson combination in the American baseball coaches Hall of Fame just give a round of applause for [Applause] that he served as head coach of the USA national team there’s a lot of things about him but I know what his priorities are certainly they are academics for his student athletes relationships with fans and the community and philanthropic Endeavors a couple of little known facts as I introduce our coach coach Maneri a few years ago as a student athlete took an official visit to the University of South Carolina who in the audience knew that he told me he had a wonderful time a great weekend and Coach Reigns recruited the other two guys that he was with so this is not his first opportunity very briefly a few people have asked me how this process came about as I was going through the process vetting candidates and there were a lot of good ones that were interested in becoming Gamecocks as you do if you’re in my shoes you call people in the business that will give you great advice so I reached out to coach Maneri to see what he thought about some of the people that I had on my list knowing when I picked up the phone to call him that his name surfaced last year and a couple of other jobs he’ll tell you when he left LSU I knew that he didn’t leave the way that maybe he wanted to leave I didn’t know when I made that phone call whether he would even entertain the conversation or just tell me about the candidates I was asking him about of course I wiggled my way into the conversation how about you he was very very interested and excited about that I felt that in listening to him and knowing him like I do the last chapter had not been written so I continued to put on my recruiting shoes in the next hours to come that led us to this day so I’m delighted today on behalf of President Michael amaras who’s out of town in Washington today and our chair of the board The Honorable Thad Westbrook to welcome and ask you to please join in join me in welcoming our new head baseball coach coach Paul Maneri [Applause] we got a few picture here come on look at that well let me make one quick uh correction to that introduction and all those wins that he was talking about I didn’t win any of them the players won them all let’s make sure that we understand that very clearly uh yeah a week ago I couldn’t have imagined standing here at this Podium and talking to you all about coaching the Carolina Gamecocks but we never know what life will throw you and Ry has been a friend for a lot of years and when he called me of course we had a nice conversation and he still got the recruiting ability I can promise you but let me let me say this okay um I was born to coach and I’ve coached over 2,300 games I grew up the son of a coach it’s all I ever wanted to do when I was 14 years old I went to my father and I said pop I know what I want to do with the rest of my life I want to be a college baseball coach like you so he was a great mentor for me besides a wonderful father about the profession and what what he explained to me and what I’ve carried with me in my entire coaching career was that it’s not about me it’s not about Prestige it’s not about uh publicity it’s not about making money it’s not about even winning games and and the Love of the Game it’s all about the players they don’t create baseball programs so that I can have a place to work or Ray Tanner can have a place to work they they they have them on college campuses so that gifted baseball players will have a place to develop their talents to their fullest potential and learn lessons that will later on go into their they that they will later on use in their lives so that they can become success successful husbands fathers and uh in whatever career fields in which they choose to to partake so this has been my vision about what my profession is about it’s a all been it’s always about the development of the young person now if we do a good enough job recruiting talent and we coach them the right way on the field and we have that attitude about helping them develop I just feel that the winning will take care of itself and make no mistake about it I like to win and I make no apologies for that in fact I really hate to lose more than I like to win but we’ll always do it within the rules will always do it with good sportsmanship this is something I will demand from our players and we will always do it with our players presenting themselves and conducting themselves in a way that will make the the University of South Carolina very proud I can promise you that this is an exciting time for me and uh you know being in the Midlands is a lot better than being Upstate I know that and uh I’m looking forward to being here with everybody body I I myself would like to thank Thad Westbrook for from the board of of uh trustees what how he got involved and made this all happen not only for me but for our entire staff um and of course president amoritas uh who I’m looking forward to meet in the future but make no mistake about it the reason that I came here is because of Ray Tanner and I mean this very sincerely uh what an awesome opportunity for a college baseball coach to have as his boss a good friend one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game and a tremendous administrator and so this is a this is a the way I look at this opportunity is just like that it’s an opportunity it’s a privilege it’s not anything I will ever take for granted and I appreciate the confidence that Ry has shown in me to make me the coach here at Carolina you know uh I’ve had the opportunity prior to this to work at four wonderful institutions I started at a small school in Miami which was my hometown St Thomas University you know not nobody really even knew we had a baseball program so all I did was work with the players and enjoy enjoy that part of it the development of the players after six years there I had this unbelievable opportunity to become the first civilian baseball coach at the United States Air Force Academy you know I’m proud to tell you and stand in front of you that five of my former players are General officers in the Air Force and that’s something I’m extremely proud about you know my my uncle served as a Bombadier in World War II my father served in the Army and when you’re around the cadets at the Air Force Academy and around people that have served in our military I can’t tell you how much that makes you feel privileged to have opportunities to go out onto the baseball field and play play a game that we love because of those people so my time at the Air Force Academy was something that I will always cherish and then I was perfectly happy there our family was growing we were we were enjoying ourselves and six years later out of the clear blue I got a call from the University of Notre Dame and I you know I thought to myself you know Notre Dame of course means our mother I wanted to go to heaven and I thought if I turn Notre Dame down I might not get in on the first ballot so I thought I ought to do that so we went to Notre Dame and I’ll never forget that press conference announcing my hiring it was the first press conference I had ever had and I’m sitting there just amazed you know that people cared enough about baseball and the priest sitting next to me leaned over to me and he said Paul I want you to know because we’re a private school you don’t have to divulge what your salary is and I said don’t worry about it father Bo champ I’m just as embarrassed about it as you are so I was perfectly happy at Notre Dame and I was there for six uh for 12 years and had opportunities you know that nothing that I pursued but opportunities to go to some other places in the south in the SEC in the Big 12 uh but nothing appealed to me I just you know I was happy at Notre Dame we were raising our family and and we we didn’t never want to leave and then out of the clear blue I got a call one day from skip Bertman and uh skip is a person I knew from my days of growing up in Miami as he did uh I think if Ry was up here he’d tell you what a phenomenal person skip is and and and what a molder of men he was and and the influence he had on so many people and he’s a hell of a recruiter as well so when I came down to visit with him we sat down and talked for an hour I said skip look I have a great job I don’t need this job and we need to decide if this is the right thing for you and if it’s the right thing for me well we talked all day and uh I slept on it that night and I took the job you know the next day Karen and I talked about it the night before and and she asked me you know do you you know what do you want to do and I said I think I want to take the job and she said why and I said because if I don’t do it I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life and I don’t want to go through the rest of my life regretting anything I may crash and burn but at least I’m going to take my swings you know when I these players are here they’re going to hear me say this an awful lot of times in the biggest games of the year the most pressure on you you cannot be afraid to fail you’ve got to believe in yourself and you’ve got to go out there and make it happen you need to attack well I started thinking maybe I ought to listen to that advice that I gave my players through all those years and I ought to take this this jump of faith and uh let’s go for it well I’m really glad we did we had some success and it was a wonderful experience um Ry mentioned that I it didn’t end the way I wanted to it wasn’t because I was fired it wasn’t because I was forced out but I I was having some neck problems and it was just physically uh taxing on me I was still a young 63 years old but it just you know I was dealing with these issues well we dealt with them after I retired and as each year has passed by this is the third year I’ve been out I have felt better and better and better with each passing year and right now I’m standing in front of you at 66 years old but believe me that’s just the number I don’t feel anything close to 66 years old I feel like I’m 40 years old again I am so excited about being here and doing this job um I’m so excited about being part of the Carolina history and the tradition the winning tradition I can’t wait to meet Don Staley uh um Shane Beamer called me the other day we had a nice talk I can’t wait to meet Lamont and all the other coaches Ashley I watched her press conference yesterday and it was you know just it’s a place that’s filled with Champions and people that want to do things the right way and I’m just so excited about the whole thing nothing would be possible in life without family and I have been so blessed in so many ways professionally but the greatest blessing that I have in my life is my family you’ve already been introduced to my beautiful wife Karen you know we’ve only been married for 44 years so we’re not sure we’re going to make a commitment to each other um she’s been with me every step of the way and whenever I’ve had these other opportunities you know I I say to her you know what do you want to do and her response has always been whatever you want to do I’m right there with you and will support you in every way actually this opportunity she was pushing for me to do it she uh she knew that there was something missing in my life and that I needed to take another another shot at it and uh fortunately it worked out but we’re you know she’s been the backbone of our family you know when you’re a coach and you have a young family like my children were at one point they’re not so young anymore but you know you can’t survive in this profession unless you’ve got someone at home who is uh is strong and a Wonder ful mother and and just a very supportive person and you know she essentially raised our children and they’re they’ve all turned out unbelievable my oldest son Nick graduated from Notre Dame played on the team there he’s now back at Notre Dame as an academic advisor he’s actually the coordinator of their uh um uh what do we call it the uh transition the co coordinator of transition director of transition for the athletes when they come into school he he kind of oversees all the sports and what they do there he’s doing terrific my daughter Alexandra just moved from New Orleans to Sacramento because her husband took a job out there she’s a wonderful child she just had a wonderful child he’s four years old Roco Paul wolf I miss them they’re on Sacramento my daughter Samantha who lives right next door lived right next door to us because we don’t live there anymore um she uh she’s just the most amazing child you ever met she is a therapist where she talks with women who have natal issues and she’s just terrific at it she’s become an expert in the field and then my youngest Tommy or you all should know him as Dr Tommy he’s a he’s a dentist in Baton Rouge he’s named after Tommy lorta who is his Godfather and uh they’ve all been there for me every step of the way and uh you know they’re excited about this as well and they can’t wait to come to visit us here so I just want you all know that every day we go out to that ball field we we are going to give you the very best effort that we can um we’re going to wear that uniform with pride we’re going to we we are going to represent that University with class and dignity and if if a player doesn’t want to do it he’s just not going to be a part of the program it’s that simple I want our players goal I told him yesterday I only have one goal for every one of them and that’s for them individually to become the very best players that they can be if that results in being an All-American or a first round draft choice a big big leager that’d be wonderful I’d be the happiest guy in the world this school has produced an awful lot of Major Leaguers uh all you have to do is look at the history and see some of the greatest players in the country are out there I I got a call yesterday from Whit Maryfield and uh that was thrilling for me it came out of the clear blue Jeff churchich who played here many years ago also played for my father he sent me a text message uh Adrien Morales who played third base on National championship teams he he reached out to me um so a lot of people that uh went through this program and have an awful light of lot of lot have an awful lot of pride in this program are very excited to see what the next chapter of of uh Carolina baseball is going to be so I can promise you that we’re going to wear this uniform with pride I have loved everywhere I’ve been um and I know that I that our family is going to love Columbia South Carolina as much as we’ve loved anywhere else and you’re going to get our very best effort and hopefully we’re going to put a team out there that you’re going to be very very proud of so with that said if we have questions Steve I’d be happy to answer anything would raise their hand get a microphone to you David claer with the Charleston posting C what was your first name David David nice to meet you there welcome to Columbia Paul uh since you stepped away in 2021 there’s been a couple of uh issues to come into the game with nil and the transfer portal I never I never heard of that so how do you plan to approach those well let me tell you how I’m going to approach him okay I’m going to lean on my coaching staff extremely hard okay and this is a good segue into me telling you about my coaching staff all right thank you for Te it up for me David first of all um when Ry and I first talked about this job Ry was Ry Ray talked to me about Monty Lee now I didn’t know Monty that well we’ had a couple of dealings with each other when he was the coach of Clemson am I allowed to say that name or do I have to refer to him as the team up north okay all right um when he was the coach there we had a couple of things to discuss but I couldn’t you know FIB about this and say I really knew Monty but Ry knows Monty really well okay he obviously coached against him then he was part of his coaching staff and then you know they’ve remained very close Rey has been a real Mentor for Monty and been been and has been a big influence on his life so he knows him well so I deferred to him to tell me about Monty and you know why why is this so important and he explained it and as I thought about it as Ry was explaining it to me and then I slept on it before I gave Ry my answer I was absolutely convinced Ry was exactly right and I and I knew that Ry was a really good judge of people and talent and so forth so Monty and I ended up having a conversation because you know obviously there’s going to be a little bit of disappointment that he didn’t get this position and I knew that he also had an opportunity become a head coach at another school and he’s been head he’s been a head coach for 14 years and a very successful one but I wanted him to be a part of our coaching staff because of everything that Ry had told me about him well then we had a conversation that probably lasted two hours right Monty or more and it was amazing because it was a very blunt and honest conversation on both sides and that’s the way I deal with people in a very honest way and very forthright and as the conversation continued to morph I could see that there was a connection there and as we started talking about things like philosophy of the game and coaching and hitting and fielding and pitching and everything else it was amazing to me how aligned both of us were in our beliefs about how to do things I had total respect for the work that he’s done as the interim head coach he’s basically kept the team together and he’s giving me great input on on each of the players um he he’s going to be a tremendous continue to be a tremendous part of of Carolina baseball and I’m really happy and proud that he that he stayed on with us and and okay let it be told I don’t know how much longer I’m going to coach and I’m sure that question is going to come but I hope that we’re going to do well enough that Monty will be ready to take over when I finished that’s how I feel about it Terry Rooney has and I have history together he was my uh I had a pitching coach at Notre Dame for nine years by the name of Brian OK Conor Brian is the head coach at Virginia and when Brian left to become the head coach it really felt like I my right arm was cut off I was like walking in circles because I had no balance anymore so the the most important hire I ever was going to make in my coaching career was going to be who to replace Brian with so I did a national search and everybody kept telling me the name Terry Rooney he was at the time the pitching coach at uh at STS and were you the recruiting coordinator as well at that time Terry and he was the recruiting coordinator when I met him he my god the guy had the enthusiasm of a 100 people he’s like the Energizer Bunny he just never slows down so I offered him the position he came and joined me there the the other assistant I had was Cliff Godwin who is now the head coach at East Carolina so Terry was with me for three years at Notre Dame Cliff was with me for one year and then I when I took the job at LSU I brought both of them with me to LSU the first year I was at LSU we weren’t very good quite frankly you know there there needed to be a real upgrade in the talent and um and a lot of things had to happen well Terry and Terry and Cliff hit the ground running and they came up with the number one recruiting class in the country my our first year at LSU now there was no transfer portal in those days so we couldn’t get immediate help but we recruited a bunch of freshman a few Junior College transfers that class ended up being so critical in our second year we went to Omaha the third year now Terry left me after the second year to become the head coach at Central Florida which is of course known as UCF now and and he was the head coach there for eight years Terry for eight years uh and did a wonderful job um but the team that he basically put together we won the National Championship with in our third year so now as I had this opportunity that Ry was sounding like he was he was very interested in me doing it the only way I could have done it is if Terry joined the staff with me because I I have so much confidence in his ability to coach players on the field he coached a pitching staff that went to Omaha and then left the pitching staff that won the national championship for us the next year and and as a recruiter there’s just nobody that’s going to outwork him so the team of those two guys Monty and terer unbelievable the third assistant is going to be a a Man by the name of John Henry John is on the staff at Virginia right now working for Brian o’conor and he is not coached on the field with Virginia in his three years there but in the Summers he’s been going off and coaching the pitchers in Collegiate summer leagues the most important thing about John is that he grew up the son of a baseball man his father Jim Henry is one of the great Executives in Major League Baseball he was the general manager of the Chicago Cubs for almost 10 years uh for the last 10 years he has been the special assistant to Brian Cashman who runs the New York Yankees so John grew up in that environment in Wrigley Field and Yankee Stadium being around big Leaguers all the time it it was amazing as I watched him grow up the maturity and his knowledge and so forth I knew that he had a tremendous career ahead of him in coaching when I talked to him about the possibility of coming here and he was describing his work for me I didn’t realize how much he did with the transfer portal and in recruiting just not off campus and in fact when I talked to Brian o’conor about it he used the term John Henry is going to be an Allstar in the coaching profession and he described to me what he would do things like you know daily the coaches for Virginia would get text messages maybe 20 of them in one day hey guys uh so and so just went in the transfer portal I watched video on him I think he’s somebody we should be interested in and this is the reasons why so he’s he’s ready to help and with Terry being uh the recruiting coordinator I don’t know know if I mentioned that but we’re going to shift the recruiting coordinator title from Moni to to Terry there may be a day or two where Terry has to be on the road might miss a practice or whatever John Henry as a as an assistant pitching coach is going to be able to step in there and we’re not going to skip a beat out there on the field because Terry’s going to be mentoring John along the way too so in answer to your question David long answer I’m going to depend on these guys okay I don’t I don’t know exactly how this all works but I’m learning a lot I’ve learned a lot in the last three days with these guys I think between the two of them I’m I’ve probably had 30 conversations and another 40 text messages but while I’ve been in b rou and they’ve been here so we’re going to get this thing figured out we’re going to have it you know have a really good plan going forward and I’ll become more and more involved as time goes on Yes Rick Henry W TV he welcome to Columbia thank you what what’s the key to transforming a program into one that can consistently get to the regional Super Regionals and make trips to Omaha well let me say this first of all this program is not in the doldrums okay I mean they won 37 games last year they won three games in the SEC tournament they won a game in the regional they’re close there’s Talent on this team I know there’s Talent on this team so you know people say oh you know how many years going to take look I don’t have a three-year plan I don’t have a five-year plan I got a one-year plan this team the kids that are on this team that only have one more year of Eligibility they don’t care about two years from now or three years from now we’re going to go out there and do the very best that we can this coming year and if we do a little bit more to supplement the the the the team that we have coming back through recruiting and transfer portal and so forth I don’t see why we can’t compete for for everything right out of the gate I didn’t come here to lose I didn’t come here to be mediocre in my opinion Carolina baseball represents Excellence Ray Tanner listen Bobby Richardson and June Reigns and and Ray Tanner all the great coaches of the past they didn’t work so hard to build a mediocre mediocre team they’re not happy with mediocrity and nor will I this my last go around I’m not working anywhere after here okay this is it so I think we need to win now I think we should go for it I don’t know if it’s going to happen you know it’s a tough League I don’t know if you know that but it’s a tough League okay and we’re going to go out there and we’re going to compete our you know what’s off every day and if we get a few breaks and and we make it happen but I think the attitude of the players is going to dictate everything if they’re disciplined if they care about the little things it starts with how they conduct themselves it starts with how they keep the locker room it’s how they respect their facility it’s how they interact with the public it’s all those kinds of things that if they’re totally dedicated to a cause and we have the discipline and maybe we teach them how to handle the pressure situation a little bit better okay make a big pitch get a big hit make a big play run the bases take pride in the base running you know it’s a it’s a cumulative thing that doesn’t just happen overnight you got to do it every day you got to be a champion every day if you really want to hold up the big trophy at the end and those were those were characteristics of raised teams when when they were really winning big I don’t see any reason why we can’t just restore that glory and again again if we recruit the right players coach them the right way you know be dedicated to them and they’re dedicated to the team I don’t see any reason why we should put limits on what we accomplish Paul Mike you have a Gamecock Central hey Mike there’s been obviously two coaches that have come in since Ray last coach at South Carolina and naturally people understand the expectations and you mentioned it just the great history how how much does it excite you knowing that this fan base is very passionate and obviously they’re going to hold you and the program to a very high level of expectations I’m not sure if you know this or even recognize it but I actually came from a place that’s very similar okay yeah um I told the new coach when he took over and I met with him I said hey they’re going to love you until you fall behind in the first game of the year okay um you know we win every game when I was a coach at LSU we had some disappointing moments too we had a lot of phenomenal success and great moments you know we only won one National Championship you know Ray’s got me there okay I need another skin on the wall to catch up with Ray all right um but sometimes people have a tendency to dwell on the negative the sport of baseball it’s impossible to win every game it’s just impossible you know nobody’s going to go 56 and0 um you know we’re going to have we’re going to get our nose blooded here and there but you got to just stay the course and and I know that fans are going to you know be critical at times all right I’ve always said this when I was at LSU and and criticism got loud there’s only one thing worse than criticism and that’s apathy there’s not going to be apathy among Carolina fans there wasn’t apathy among LSU fans the criticism is not to be taken personal they want to win and I don’t blame them you know they own season tickets they’re support the baseball program you know that you know there’s no major league baseball here this is Major League Baseball for our fans and the people that are are watching the games but let me tell you this they they aren’t going to want to win any more than I want to win okay and Terry and and Monty and John that nobody’s going to want to win more than we do so we’re going to do everything we can do to put our players in a position to be successful that’s that’s the big thing that we need to do is we need to put our players in situations that they can be most successful I’m looking to see what players do extraordinary things and then we’re going to magnify those extraordinary things and try to keep from putting them in situations where they might have a difficult time succeeding all right so if we’re doing all those things the success is going to come I’m standing in front of you here telling you we’re going to win there’s no doubt in my mind about that that’s not even up for discussion we’re going to do it we’re going to get it done but that doesn’t mean every step is forward there might be three steps forward one step back five steps forward one step back and that’s just the nature of it but how our players deal with adversity short-term adversity and how our players handle success with humility and knowing that at the end of the day you know what tomorrow’s a new day the score starts 0 0 again and we got to turn the page and be ready to play each and every day so listen I’m going to love our fans I’m going to be I’m look when things aren’t going good I’m not going to be hiding in the corner of The Dugout I’ll be standing out there on the top step and I’ll be the lightning rod for the criticism I want the I want the success to go to the the credit of the success to go to the players and to our staff I’ll be the lightning rod for the criticism that’s okay with me I’m a big boy I can handle it hi Paul Jack mry Gamecock central.com pleasure meeting you sir nice to meet you when it comes to analytics cuz you know the game has changed so much the years and stuff are you the type of person that trusts his feeling and his gut versus looking at the numbers like how do you kind of look at that and I guess the second part of that question is do you try adjusting with the times or do you do you just stick with what’s kind of worked for you so well over the years very good question and the answer to that is yes I know it was an or question but I’m saying yes both okay the analytics can be very valuable you know Monty took me for a tour of the hitting facility to day and showed me all the cameras and the computers and all the stuff that we can do analytics why would you not take advantage of it when I talked to Terry about his evolving as a pitching coach he explained to me how important some of the analytics are to him and how he going to work with the pitchers so yeah it’s crazy to not use what technology can give you and and the advances that we have in the game but I’m not going to totally depend on that you know I’m going to trust these two little white things and in in the front of my face I’m going to see what I see and I’m going to believe what I see and I’ve been a pretty good judge of talent that allowed me to last for 39 years without somebody kicking me to the curb I’ve always said this the players you choose to tie your hit your wagon to are going to determine whether or not you’re a good coach see I have never in 39 years as a head coach pitched one ball or hit one pitch or run the bases or caught it it’s all about the players they’re the ones that get it done or don’t get it done so I I have to make the judgment on who are the players that we can really trust especially in pressure situations so a lot of a lot of the analytics tell you oh RBIs are an important stat to me it’s the most important stat it doesn’t do any good to get on base if we don’t get those base runners around to home plate the whole idea is the score runs and and the Run differential is what matters if it look does the you know spin rate help a pitcher be more successful absolutely okay but the idea is to get the hit her out and to limit the amount of runs that we give up so yeah I’m it’s going to be a combination and uh I’m not going to be a dinosaur and say oh no I don’t care about all that other stuff because it’d be silly for me to do that and the players have grown up with that they’ve started at ages 10 and 11 you know learning about all those kind of things we’re not going to just completely divorce oursel from it but if it came down to the bottom line of do you play a person with good exit velosophy or a guy that comes through in the clutch with a runner on third base and one out I’m going to play the guy with the r that gets the runner in so it’s going to be a combination of both Allen Cole Gamecocks grp.com uh you talked about your philosophy a couple questions back in one of the answers do you have any kind of what do you look for in a team you know are there any non-negotiables in an Omaha typ roster that you look for that just kind of have to be there with any team you’re going to so you know several years ago they moved from Rosen blat Stadium to what’s now called Schwab field and we won the National Championship in ‘ 09 when I say we I’m sorry LSU won the National Championship in 2009 in rosenblat and I told I told Ray today what I admired most about his championships is he won one in rosenblat and then he won one in the new stadium and both Fields play entirely different Rosen blat was a home run Haven it sat up on a hill and when the wind blew out and the fences weren’t that far out okay it was an offensive game in Omaha when we went to the in 2013 to I said we again didn’t I gosh I promised myself I wouldn’t do that when LSU went to the World Series in 2013 it was our first time we played in that field okay I remember we played uccla in the first game we lost 2 to one we hit four balls that would have been home runs in any park in the SEC one went out and three were caught at the wall and the the and the The Outfield was huge it was like the Grand Canyon I didn’t realize just how big it was and how big it played so I realized then and there that if you want to really be successful not only in the regular season or in Omaha you have to have diversity on your team you have to have a lot of flexibility so look if if we have to win a 13 to 12 game because we can slug the ball out of the park or because we fell behind in a game by a few runs and we need to battle back and you got to battle back with with some long balls with a couple of guys on base I want to have a team that’s capable of doing that on the other hand if the wind is blowing in or you’re playing in a big ballpark or you’re facing a super duper pitcher where hits aren’t going to be easy to get you got to be able to manufacture as well so the non-negotiables are we’re going to be a good base running team okay and we’re going to have a few guys in the lineup that can hit the ball out of the ballpark without a doubt but we’re also going to have a few guys in the lineup that can handle the bat that can bunt that don’t they don’t strike out they hit the ball to the opposite field they’re just that gritty hard noosed tough out that we all love to see um I like to have fast guys then maybe we can steal a base and without questioning one thing that I will never give him on is we’re going to have a good defensive team because if we want to have a great pitching team you better have great defense behind them because it’s impossible to be great pitching team if you don’t put catch the ball behind them and that and we’re going to do that I’ll coach the infielders so if our infielders don’t catch the ball and throw it the first base accurately you can point the finger at me I can promise you it won’t be because we’re not going to work hard enough at it so any of those infielders sitting out there you better strap it on okay um Monty is going to work with the outfielders I’ll work with the infielders we’re not sure yet who’s going to work with the catchers we’re trying to figure that out right now and of course Terry will have the pitching staff but I just want to have a complete team you know and be able to do it in every way I’m not big on oh we’re going to walk more than anybody else you know I love to give the green light I like to see hitters swing from their heels when they get a pitch coming in and I don’t want our pitchers to fall behind behind on hitters because I don’t want the other team doing that to us but at the same time you know love to manufacture I know that hit and run play’s kind of been put in the closet I’m going to break it out of the closet and see if we can’t execute a few of those time for one more John Woodle thebigspur.com you mentioned that you know the program’s not too far off but it has been a while since South Carolina was able to compete in the SEC for for championships what do you see in your Viewpoint so so far in just a short time is is kind of the biggest hurdle biggest barrier to getting there uh well I think the league is getting tougher every year there’s a lot of great teams out there and um you know let me tell you something one year I went as a coach our team went at LSU our team went 13 and 17 we make the SEC tournament there was only eight teams that went that year I think that was 2011 okay two years later we went 17 and 13 we were National seed four game difference 36 and 21 year to 40 and 16 the next four game difference in conference four game difference overall went from not making the tournament to National seat so so the difference is Razor thin you know you you win a few one-run games and you’re you’re having a good year that’s the key you got to win the close ones you got to and the only way to win the close ones is with clutch hitting Poise on the mound and on defense late in the game and a belief that they that you’re going to finish the game off and if I there’s that’s one of the things that quite frankly we’ve been proud about in our career is we’ve w a lot of close games and I think it’ll make the difference in the season thank you coach