Metaphorically speaking, Ray Tanner was stepping up to the plate with an 0-2 count. Just getting on base wasn’t going to be enough. He needed to go big or go home.
In just over a week since he fired Mark Kingston, Tanner has not just hit a home run, he has hit a grand slam. With everything he has done in the last few days, he’s shown he can get the job done.
Tanner had a huge task at hand. It wasn’t just about hiring a new head baseball coach. He also had to conduct coaching searches in both softball and men’s golf, as well. And he delivered on all fronts.
During Tuesday’s Board of Trustees meeting, Paul Mainieri officially became the 31st head baseball coach at South Carolina. In addition, two other contract approvals were announced for baseball: Monte Lee and Terry Rooney will be on the staff as paid assistants.
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In total, Tanner and the administration will dedicate nearly $2.3 million to the new baseball coaching staff. Mainieri will make $1.3 million annually, Lee will make $550,000 annually and Rooney will make $425,000 annually.
Coming into this hiring process, it was unclear how much money South Carolina was going to be willing to put into the new staff. But it’s clear that Tanner was willing to do whatever it took to get the right guys and did just that. For reference, Kingston was making $725,000 in his latest contract. So with Mainieri making well over $1 million, it shows Tanner has a lot of confidence in what he can do for the next five years.
And on the subject of Mainieri, this was such an out of left field type of hire. When looking at all the potential candidates brought up, his name wasn’t really one of them. That was until Monday when word began circulating that South Carolina was zeroing in on him to become the next coach.
You can look at Mainieri’s age (66 years old) and draw conclusions that he won’t be able to succeed here because of that. But the fact of the matter is that Tanner brought in a coach with more experience and accolades than any other candidate. This is a power move to get the Gamecocks back to Omaha as soon as possible.
Now, this is just one piece of the entire equation to look at. Tanner could’ve put all his time, effort and resources solely into getting the baseball hire right. And to be fair, he couldn’t afford another mishap after going 0-for-2 in his first two tries at hiring a coach. But he did just as well of a job hiring coaches in two other sports this week.
On June 8, just five days after Tanner fired Kingston, South Carolina parted ways with longtime head softball coach Beverly Smith. In 14 seasons, Smith had a 461-323 (.588) overall record but went 102-219 (.318) in SEC play. With Oklahoma and Texas joining the conference, a change was in order.
Luckily, Tanner didn’t have to look very far for his next head coach. He turned to Ashley Chastain, who led Charlotte program’s first-ever outright regular season conference championship in 2023. That also include the team’s first-ever NCAA Tournament bid.
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But beyond that, Chastain is a former Gamecock. And that’s something that will surely energize the South Carolina fanbase moving forward. It’s going to be tough to win in the SEC with how good many of the teams are. However, bringing back homegrown talent to lead the way was the perfect move by Tanner.
Then there’s men’s golf, another sport that doesn’t receive nearly the same amount of attention as baseball. Nevertheless, Tanner and South Carolina went out and hired Rob Bradley as the new head coach. Bradley, who was previously at Purdue, led the Boilermakers to nine NCAA Regionals and four NCAA Championship appearances in 11 seasons.
So again, the big thing that stands out is success. And that’s an overall theme of these hirings. Tanner didn’t hold back and has seemingly made the best choices possible.
How will each of these coaching decisions translate over the next few years? That remains to be seen. But for right now, Tanner and the administration deserve major props. They did what needed to be done.
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The post Column: Ray Tanner swung for the fences and made a grand slam hire in trio of coaching searches appeared first on On3.