In addition to covering the SEC for our website and running social media for our radio station and site, I also host the LockedOn podcast for South Carolina. If you’ve seen Ross Jackson’s Saints podcast, or Matt Moscona’s LSU pod, it’s that. Well, it’s that, but with less yelling about Derek Carr and defending Jalen Milroe.
My family lives in Columbia, South Carolina. My sister graduated from USC. And, my stepdad ran the Alsco Linen plant across the street from Founders Park. Needless to say, I was very excited for Paul Mainieri’s debut season with the Gamecocks.
However, it’s been a nightmare for Carolina fans. Sure, they should’ve had more reasonable expectations considering the roster is one of the weakest in the SEC. But, this seemed like a match made in heaven: a former national championship winning coach and one of the former premiere programs in all of college baseball.
I spent most of the first two months of this season explaining why it was asinine to even consider moving on from Mainieri this quickly. Chalk it up to crazy fans starved for winning. But, at every turn it’s somehow gotten worse. Not only on the field, but off it.
That’s because last weekend following yet another series loss, this time to Kentucky, Mainieri said this:
“I had just underestimated the strength of the conference and how much better the conference has gotten in the last couple of years,” he said. “The players are so much bigger and stronger and more experienced, older. We just have not been able to match up in some cases with them.”
I’m sorry what? You underestimated the strength of the conference. This one quote was probably meaningless to Mainieri, but it sent me, and a lot of Gamecock fans, into a full on meltdown. Where to even begin?
I mean, tell me you don’t have the roster. Tell me your eight hole hitter didn’t get a bunt down in a one run game. Tell me your bullpen can’t locate pitches and keeps elevating fastballs to the heart of the order. Tell me something that makes actual sense.
But you underestimated the SEC? Are you kidding me? How?
Think about how ridiculous that sentence alone is. Underestimated the SEC. Overestimated, sure. Maybe the conference is overrated, or top heavy, or lacking star power in comparison to years past. But saying you underestimated the conference means you’re either dumb or lying. In this case, it might be both.
How do you underestimate the conference that’s won five straight national titles? The same conference that saw the last four College World Series Championship Series be played by two SEC teams or teams that are current members. The conference that’s put out an average of 88 MLB Draft Picks in each of the last three drafts. And by the way – THE SAME CONFERENCE YOU ALREADY COACHED IN BEFORE.
What’s even more infuriating is that I know what he’s saying isn’t true. I know that not only from common sense, but because we interviewed Paul Mainieri on this website roughly a month ago for a story about the last LSU-Mississippi State series before Dudy Noble Field was unveiled. These were the exact words he had for our Digital Media Director Rivers Hughey:
“My first year, even back then it was the dominant baseball conference in the country. So you know it was outstanding. Every Friday night, you’re facing a future first round draft choice and every team had two or three future major leagues on it, and it was from top to bottom.
It was the very best league in the country. And it’s only gotten better as years have gone on.
You know every single school has a beautiful facility, has hired an outstanding coach, and has given the program financial support to recruit. The programs just keep getting better and better. The conference just keeps getting better and better.”
Wow.
I hate coach speak. And I hate losing. But what I hate more than anything is being lied to by a coach because he isn’t willing to be honest with addressing what everyone else already knows they’re seeing. And saying you underestimated what has been the best conference in college baseball since the Clinton administration is like Mike Elko saying he underestimated the empty calories after a sackful of Krystals.
And, just to be clear, this is what Mainieri said at his opening presser. This is what fans were expecting. Even more, this is what they deserved.
“I don’t see why we can’t compete for everything right out of the gate,” Mainieri says. “I didn’t come here to lose. I didn’t come here to be mediocre. In my opinion, Carolina baseball represents excellence. I think we need to win now.”
