Clemson Head Coach Monte Lee: 'We All Understand Expectations of This Program'
CLEMSON - For the first time in more than six decades, the Clemson Baseball program finished a season with a losing record.
To find the last time that happened, you have to go all the way back to the season before the legendary Bill Wilhelm was hired as the Tigers head coach in 1958.
Under the tutelage of Wilhelm and his successor Jack Leggett, Clemson evolved into one of the most consistent programs in all of college baseball. The Tigers made regular appearances in the Super Regionals, as well as reaching the College World Series a dozen times.
Over the past decade, though, the program has taken a step back. Clemson hasn't made it out of a regional since 2010, something that ultimately cost Leggett his job following the 2015 season.
After Monte Lee was hired in his place, things appeared to be headed in the right direction again. The Tigers won the ACC Tournament in Lee's first season, then were co-ACC Champions in 2018, and hosted regionals in each of Lee's first three seasons.
However, the program failed to make it out of any of those regionals. Then in 2019 the Tigers failed to win 40 games for the first time under Lee and were the last team in the field, before being bounced out of the regional round by a Jacksonville State team that had never won an NCAA postseason game.
The Tigers bounced back and started off the 2020 season on fire, winning 14 of their first 17 games before the season came to a screeching halt due to the pandemic. Then came 2021, when Clemson would struggle to play with any consistency and finish 25-27 overall, 16-20 in ACC play and fail to make it into the NCAA Tournament. They also dropped the season series to the rival Gamecocks for the second time in the past three years.
Lee met with the media on Monday, acknowledging exactly how frustrating of a season it was. The Tigers head coach said he's well aware of the expectations that are in place for the program and readily admits his team fell well short of those in 2021.
"Since the end of the season, a few weeks ago until now, our focus as a program has been on the future and moving forward," Lee said. "It was a very, very difficult season, and I've already talked about that at length, just how tough this season was, for a number of reasons. Obviously wins and losses, and we all understand the expectations of the program, I understand the expectations for the program, and we had a tough season from a wins and losses perspective."
Lee said he, along with everyone else inside the program, is ready to put last season behind them. He wants to look forward, focusing solely on what he considers a very bright future for his team.
"This season, quite honestly, for me as the head coach and the leader of the program, it's like an open wound," Lee said. "You have an open wound, you put a bandage on it, and you get busy trying to take care of what you need to take care of. Which is recruiting, which is the incoming group we have for next year. A lot of things to be excited about in the future of the program."
"We got to let that wound heal. If we keep pulling on that bandage and tear that bandage off, and talk about what happened this year, we don't get busy doing what we need to be doing. Which is trying to fix some of the issues and the problems that we dealt with this year"
Lee said it's his job to pinpoint every correctable issue and make any necessary changes, which at this time does not include any staff changes. The Tigers head coach is convinced that 2021 was just an anomaly and that his team has the talent, as well as the right mindset, to get the program back on track when preparations for next season begin later this summer.
"That's my job. My job is to look at, what do we need to do better, address it, make the adjustments, and move forward," Lee said. "And that's what we're doing and we've got a lot to look forward to going into next year."