Per Twitter, it's looking like Monte Lee

CCUIrmo

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He better hire a REALLY good staff. Needs first rate pitching coach and much improved hitting coach. Also needs to massively be able to work on fielding.
My fear is that we hire him because of a few players and recruits who very well had no intention of being here due to draft or exhausted eligibility.
If this backfires it will certainly cost Ray his job I think.
Im not against Monte Lee but this BETTER work. His staff hires are crucial.
 

18IsTheMan

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Jan 19, 2022
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He better hire a REALLY good staff. Needs first rate pitching coach and much improved hitting coach. Also needs to massively be able to work on fielding.
My fear is that we hire him because of a few players and recruits who very well had no intention of being here due to draft or exhausted eligibility.
If this backfires it will certainly cost Ray his job I think.
Im not against Monte Lee but this BETTER work. His staff hires are crucial.

You have to chuckle that the guy we are apparently hiring is the one guy the entire fan base was unified in saying he's the one guy we shouldn't hire.

I don't get too lathered up about the baseball hires. Such a wild card. I'm a Yankees fan and remember when they made the uninspired hire of Joe Torre. He had a career losing record as a manager, with one postseason appearance, going 0-3. LOTS of moans and groans from the Yankee faithful at the time. This headline sums up the reaction from the Yankees base:



Of course, the rest is history. There was nothing in Torre's previous 14-year managerial career to suggest he could even be a winning manager, much less a championship manager. Nevertheless, he went on to lead one the great baseball dynasties, becoming a HOF manager in the process. With baseball, it's all just about finding that secret sauce.

Just have to hope we get the right mix with Lee.
 
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CCUIrmo

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I think we all saw it coming though in all honesty. He is, and always has been, Rays guy. Ray wanted him last time. I think he is the only one Ray was focused on and wanted him here to take over when Kingston was let go at any point. This was decided a while back.
I am not totally against it but had a few others I wanted more.
 

92Pony

Joined Jan 18, 2011
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So in the whole wide baseball world there's not a more successful and promising coach out there than one already on staff? Hard to believe. If this happens, it just comes off as lazy or desperate.
It’s a Tanner hire, so……
 
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Sweetwatergolf

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He better hire a REALLY good staff. Needs first rate pitching coach and much improved hitting coach. Also needs to massively be able to work on fielding.
My fear is that we hire him because of a few players and recruits who very well had no intention of being here due to draft or exhausted eligibility.
If this backfires it will certainly cost Ray his job I think.
Im not against Monte Lee but this BETTER work. His staff hires are crucial.
I have no problem with this hire. Staff hires would be crucial no matter who came here. He will get players here, as we agree the staff will need to develop once here. That seem to missing last several years.
Would you want another pitching coach named? Did our current pitching coach do his best with what he had? I am anxious as to how this will be handled as well.
 
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CCUIrmo

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I am fully willing to give Monte a chance. I think he has ability to do great but it will take having an amazing staff. I just dont want another Muschamp who had another chance and still refused to hire an amazing staff to offset his deficiencies. I dont really know what to think of this years pitching coach but he had a good reputation coming in and was supposedly a great recruiter. However, are we just getting rid of Kingston but keeping the rest of the staff in hopes that he was the bad wheel to this car.
I will fully support Monte but if it doesnt work out then Ray loses my support in ever hiring a baseball coach again. That support was weak to begin with for this one.
 

18IsTheMan

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I am fully willing to give Monte a chance. I think he has ability to do great but it will take having an amazing staff. I just dont want another Muschamp who had another chance and still refused to hire an amazing staff to offset his deficiencies. I dont really know what to think of this years pitching coach but he had a good reputation coming in and was supposedly a great recruiter. However, are we just getting rid of Kingston but keeping the rest of the staff in hopes that he was the bad wheel to this car.
I will fully support Monte but if it doesnt work out then Ray loses my support in ever hiring a baseball coach again. That support was weak to begin with for this one.

If you take out the optics of him being fired by Clemson, it's not a horrendous hire. Splash hire? No. But I don't know what constitutes s splash hire in college baseball. Short of us hiring the Atlanta Braves manager or something, our hiring move will be largely unreported by any major media outlets.

But the optics of him being fired by Clemson are pretty significant. The Clemson faithful will, no doubt and justifiably, have many jokes at our expense.
 

will110

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If you take out the optics of him being fired by Clemson, it's not a horrendous hire. Splash hire? No. But I don't know what constitutes s splash hire in college baseball. Short of us hiring the Atlanta Braves manager or something, our hiring move will be largely unreported by any major media outlets.

But the optics of him being fired by Clemson are pretty significant. The Clemson faithful will, no doubt and justifiably, have many jokes at our expense.
You just can't take those optics out of the equation. He's also been on staff here for the last 2 years. Why replace the failed coach with a guy who was on his staff?

So many aspects of this just don't make sense.
 

CCUIrmo

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If you take out the optics of him being fired by Clemson, it's not a horrendous hire. Splash hire? No. But I don't know what constitutes s splash hire in college baseball. Short of us hiring the Atlanta Braves manager or something, our hiring move will be largely unreported by any major media outlets.

But the optics of him being fired by Clemson are pretty significant. The Clemson faithful will, no doubt and justifiably, have many jokes at our expense.
I do know some very big Clemson baseball supporters who were disappointed by Monte leaving. They seemed to like him and felt he did pretty good. However regardless of that, there will for sure be some Clemson fans using this as a joke.
 

18IsTheMan

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Just a very unserious hire. Pitiful.

Perhaps it works out. Gamecock fans will perform mental gymnastics to convince themselves that it will, just like with Muschamp.

I don't see anyone convincing themselves that it'll work out. There's just no choice but to hope it does.

I think there are reasons to believe/hope it COULD work out (per my Joe Torre post above).
 

USCEE82

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We don't need to give the Clemtech faithful any more ammunition! Of course, we already hired him as an assistant. I wouldn't care if he had won 10 nattys up there. I'd rather us hire a Little League coach. Would you guys ever want us to hire Dablo?
 

will110

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I don't see anyone convincing themselves that it'll work out. There's just no choice but to hope it does.

I think there are reasons to believe/hope it COULD work out (per my Joe Torre post above).
There's plenty of that happening on TIF. Lots of posters trying to convince themselves and everyone else that it's actually a good hire.
 
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I think the only way Monte gets it is this:
1)USC can't afford Wake Forest coach buyout+salary. Dude signed a new contract last year.
2) ECU coach says no
3) Budget issues: USC has had to pay out lots of bonuses this year to other coaches that did well and I've heard that donors aren't giving as much anymore with NIL out there so USC will have to keep salary "reasonable" (under a million). That's just a guess on my part.
 

PrestonyteParrot

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You have to chuckle that the guy we are apparently hiring is the one guy the entire fan base was unified in saying he's the one guy we shouldn't hire.

I don't get too lathered up about the baseball hires. Such a wild card. I'm a Yankees fan and remember when they made the uninspired hire of Joe Torre. He had a career losing record as a manager, with one postseason appearance, going 0-3. LOTS of moans and groans from the Yankee faithful at the time. This headline sums up the reaction from the Yankees base:



Of course, the rest is history. There was nothing in Torre's previous 14-year managerial career to suggest he could even be a winning manager, much less a championship manager. Nevertheless, he went on to lead one the great baseball dynasties, becoming a HOF manager in the process. With baseball, it's all just about finding that secret sauce.

Just have to hope we get the right mix with Lee.
Just don't see hiring the top assistant in a failed system that was just terminated.
Lee has D1 experience, but not something you hang your hat on.

Could get the same headline and result with Powell as the Yanks did with Torre. Roll the dice.
 

Blues man

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I think the only way Monte gets it is this:
1)USC can't afford Wake Forest coach buyout+salary. Dude signed a new contract last year.
2) ECU coach says no
3) Budget issues: USC has had to pay out lots of bonuses this year to other coaches that did well and I've heard that donors aren't giving as much anymore with NIL out there so USC will have to keep salary "reasonable" (under a million). That's just a guess on my part.
Wouldn't it be almost brilliant if Ray's third choice is Monte but since he's on staff, go ahead and name him interim while you quietly offer your top two... and if they turn you down, no harm no foul, no one has to know. You've already got your third choice and no bad press in the search... again
 
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Sweetwatergolf

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Wouldn't it be almost brilliant if Ray's third choice is Monte but since he's on staff, go ahead and name him interim while you quietly offer your top two... and if they turn you down, no harm no foul, no one has to know. You've already got your third choice and no bad press in the search... again
Sounds analytical to me 🤣🤭
 

PrestonyteParrot

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Wouldn't it be almost brilliant if Ray's third choice is Monte but since he's on staff, go ahead and name him interim while you quietly offer your top two... and if they turn you down, no harm no foul, no one has to know. You've already got your third choice and no bad press in the search... again
Not sure RT is that smart or calculating considering how he has stood by and watched the program he built spiral down for years without blinking an eye.
 

Rogue Cock

Joined Sep 11, 2000
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There's plenty of that happening on TIF. Lots of posters trying to convince themselves and everyone else that it's actually a good hire.
Thankfully, Chris put those rumors from other sites to rest. No one has turned down the job and ML is not the new coach. Just some people posting rumors and innuendo trying to drive viewers to their sites.
 
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18IsTheMan

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Some of the smoke surrounding Lee seems to have dissipated, though not entirely. The State ran a profile on Lee and an article making the case for him, which they haven't done for other candidates. I would say it's still trending that way but not as done of a deal as it seemed yesterday morning.
 

Baltcock96

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So, Tanner is hiring a Clemson reject? To paraphrase Don King: Only at the University of South Carolina.
Think you need to look at Monte Lee’s career and Lee’s contributions to Tanner’s staff. I submit Lee was Clemson’s Holbrook. Never fully accepted.
 

Spinal Tap

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Some of the smoke surrounding Lee seems to have dissipated, though not entirely. The State ran a profile on Lee and an article making the case for him, which they haven't done for other candidates. I would say it's still trending that way but not as done of a deal as it seemed yesterday morning.
They also did profiles on Powell (6/5) and Godwin (6/6).
 

JandDSC

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Really disappointed in this
Failed at Clemson and in my mind failed as offensive coach under Kingston. Poor at situational hitting and with RISP. Chance to make a splash hire and this is what we do I should not be surprised
He never really had a chance at Clemtech - after all they hired a USC Assistant which made him a reject from the first pitch - many at Tater tech didn’t like him because of that fact and he didn’t have the backing of some of the higher ups to get the job done. They had their assistant that they wanted and Lee was forced to take them. That’s a recipe for a tough job
 
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JandDSC

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You just can't take those optics out of the equation. He's also been on staff here for the last 2 years. Why replace the failed coach with a guy who was on his staff?

So many aspects of this just don't make sense.
I don’t know what you saw but I saw a team that got better as soon as he joined the staff
 
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