In June 2021, after leading LSU to its ninth Super Regional under his watch, Paul Mainieri announced his retirement. Later that month, the NCAA announced its interim NIL policy, paving the way for athletes to monetize on their name, image and likeness.
Three years after his announcement, Mainieri is back in the game. He’s taking over as the head coach at South Carolina, which will be his first college coaching opportunity in the era of NIL and the transfer portal. The game has changed dramatically since he last stood in the dugout, but Mainieri said that’s why it’s important for him to put together a strong coaching staff.
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Monte Lee is staying on board, and two others – Terry Rooney and John Hendry – are coming to Columbia to round out the staff. Mainieri said they’ll help him adjust to the new landscape.
“Let me tell you how I’m gonna approach [NIL and the portal],” Mainieri said at his introductory press conference. “I’m going to lean on my coaching staff extremely hard. … I’m going to depend on these guys. I don’t know exactly how this all works, but I’m learning a lot.
“I’ve learned a lot in the last three days with these guys. I think between the two of them, I’ve probably had 30 conversations and another 40 text messages while I’ve been in Baton Rouge and they’ve been here.”
During Mainieri’s time as LSU head coach, athletes who entered the portal had to sit out a year before becoming eligible to play. That changed in the first transfer cycle after he retired, and there are now windows for players to enter.
With his staff together, Mainieri said he’s going to learn how to work through it all. As he does, he’ll become more hands-on.
“We’re going to get this thing figured out,” he said. “We’re going to have a really good plan going forward, and I’ll become more and more involved as time goes on.”
How John Hendry fits in to Paul Mainieri’s plan
John Hendry is going to be one of the biggest voices for Paul Mainieri. The son of former Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry, he currently serves on the coaching staff at Virginia, which is currently playing in the College World Series.
In the role of director of player development and scouting, Hendry works closely with the portal. He took over his current role in 2022 – shortly after the NCAA allowed athletes to transfer with immediate eligibility. That gave the young coach a close look at the ever-evolving portal world.
To Mainieri, he didn’t realize just how much Hendry did with the portal until he spoke with Brian O’Connor. Their relationship goes back to their time at Notre Dame when Mainieri was the head coach and O’Connor was the pitching coach, and he shared insight about what Hendry brings to the table. That led Maineri to hire him once UVA’s season ends.
“When I talked to [Hendry] about the possibility of coming here and he was describing his work for me, I didn’t realize how much he did with the transfer portal and in recruiting – just not off-campus,” Mainieri said. “In fact, when I talked to Brian O’Connor about it, he used the term, ‘John Hendry is going to be an all-star in the coaching profession.’ And he described to me what he would do. Things like, daily, the coaches for Virginia would get text messages – maybe 20 of them in one day. ‘Hey, guys, so-and-so just when the transfer portal. I watched video on him, I think he’s somebody we should be interested in. This is the reasons why.’ So he’s he’s ready to help.
“And with Terry being the recruiting coordinator … there may be a day or two where Terry has to be on the road, might miss a practice or whatever. John Hendry, as an assistant pitching coach, is going to be able to step in there and we’re not going to skip a beat out there on the field because Terry’s going to be mentoring John along the way, too.”
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