South Carolina has a new head baseball coach, former LSU head coach, and National Champion Paul Mainieri.

Coach Maineri has been the head coach at Notre Dame and LSU. He won the national championship in 2009 at LSU. South Carolina hired a head coach with a ton of experience and championship pedigree.

This is a really good hire for South Carolina to get someone who is a proven winner. South Carolina fans can now relax and breathe. Their new head coach has won 1 National Championship, 8 NCAA Region Championships, 5 Super Regional championships and 4 SEC Championships.

This is a good hire because coach Mainieri has coached in the SEC at a powerhouse baseball program at LSU. He knows how to win in the SEC and what type of players he needs to be successful. This is an upgrade from former coach Mark Kingston. South Carolina had talented players on their team this past season and had little success.

The year was full of ups and downs and did not go according to coach Kingston’s plans. South Carolina also kept Coach Montee Lee who is a player favorite and was an assistant this past season. Coach Lee will be the associate head coach starting this coming season.

Now, there is some concern with Coach Paul Mainieri because he is coming out of retirement and he is 66 years old. Coach Mainieri will have to adjust to the new age of NIL in college baseball. It is going to be very interesting to see if he can recruit at a high level and use NIL to his advantage.

South Carolina has a lot of baseball history of being a great program winning the National Championship in 2010 and 2011. This program can be a top 10 team in the country nearly every season.

Will that happen? We will have to wait and see. Only time will tell if Mainieri can get the Gamecocks back to their former glory.