With Paul Mainieri Retirement Official, LSU Baseball Hoping for One Final Postseason Run With Legendary Coach
When LSU coach Paul Mainieri is recruiting a player, he sits them down and tells them of what the expectations are for an LSU baseball player. It's not just to win a national championship or to have that player graduate with a degree and move on to professional baseball.
Those are the goals, sure, but his intention with each player that he's brought to Baton Rouge to coach is to help prepare them for that next stage in life. Whether it's in baseball or another profession out in the world, Mainieri at the end of the day still views his job as molding the young men in his program into adults.
"What you're doing is prepare yourself for life after LSU. That's why you go to college," Mainieri said. "So if you prepared yourself as an athlete that you were good enough to sign professionally, you've prepared yourself, or if you've graduated, now you've prepared yourself for the working world."
Over the years, Mainieri has watched as 132 of 133 seniors in his program at LSU have either signed professionally or graduated with a degree. In addition, 25 other underclassmen who have been drafted to the MLB out of college, have returned to LSU to finish out their degrees.
That's what Mainieri is most proud of as a coach and it starts with recruiting the right players in high school, ones who will buy in to what Mainieri and the coaching staff expect out of an LSU baseball player not only on the field but off.
"I get a lot of compliments from people in the public about how polite our baseball players are," Mainieri said. "They sign every autograph. They are polite to youngsters. They give great advice to young kids and do the right thing most of the time, and that's something I take an awful lot of pride in. You know, and then they go out and be successful once they leave here."
In regards to this team specifically, there's still something to play for. Mainieri will coach through the rest of the 2021 season and if that means an NCAA Tournament bid for the Tigers, then his coaching career will continue a little while longer. The first people he told of his news were his family, athletic director Scott Woodward and Skip Bertman.
But it was important to him to hold a team meeting prior to Friday's practice as well. Because another part of recruiting for Mainieri, he ensures the player that he'll be there for the entirety of his LSU career and with this retirement, he didn't want his players to get the wrong impression about leaving without fulfilling his promise to them.
"When we recruited the players here, it was my intention to see them all through their career," Mainieri said. "I have three years left on my contract. So I didn't want them to feel like I lied to them, and I apologized to them for that.
"I also told them that LSU is LSU and the leadership of the athletic department is the best there is, and they were going to go out and find the very best baseball coach in the country to come to LSU. I have no doubt about that. So they should not be alarmed at all that Paul Mainieri is leaving, because they are going to find a great baseball coach and they should be very confident in that fact for the rest of their career here."
This season is not over in Mainieri's eyes. In his heart he believes LSU has done enough to earn one more postseason run and knows this team hasn't played it's best baseball yet.
It's a unique position for Mainieri and LSU to be in because for so many years, the Tigers have done more than enough to earn a postseason bid. A 13-17 conference record and early exit at the SEC Tournament didn't help its chances but the Tigers have the No. 29 RPI and No. 3 strength of schedule in the country.
It'll be a nervous weekend but if LSU is given the opportunity, Mainieri knows his players and staff will give it everything they've got.
"I'm proud of our team. There were times when they could easily have given up, and we haven't given up," Mainieri said. "There certainly are areas we could have done better in, but they didn't give up. And if we get an opportunity to get in the NCAA Tournament, I feel very confident that this team is going to go out and play their hearts out next weekend.
"I'm all in. I'm not retired yet. The season is not over yet. I believe wholeheartedly that we'll get a bid, and if we do, the coaching staff is going to be totally engaged and where are we get sent, we are going to play like LSU Tigers are supposed to play. And I think we can win a Regional and then we'll think about a Super Regional after that."