Paul Mainieri reaffirms his future at USC: 'I didn't come here just to be here for one year'
Social media rumors began to swirl of changes coming at South Carolina after another rough weekend series against Florida. Yet nothing happened. Head coach Paul Mainieri is still here, and he doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.
“If there’s going to be a change, it’s news to me, I’ll tell you that,” Mainieri said. “I didn’t come here just to be here for one year.”
Questions of Mainieri’s job security have been going on for weeks as the Gamecocks are in the midst of one of their worst seasons to date. Speculation only increased after they were outscored 30-3 by Florida in a doubleheader on Sunday.
Then on Monday, Mainieri made his usual appearance on 107.5 The Game to clear the air that there haven’t been any conversations about his status with the program. He reaffirmed what he said one day earlier after meeting with the media on Tuesday.
“I’m the coach at South Carolina. Nobody has told me anything different or implied anything different,” he said. “I’m totally committed to being here, and I want to see this thing get on the tracks in the right way.”
Mainieri, in his first season at South Carolina, believes he has the support of athletics director Jeremiah Donati. While former AD Ray Tanner was the one to hire him before announcing his retirement in September, which Mainieri wasn’t overly pleased about, he’s since built a “wonderful relationship” with Donati.
“He’s a great guy. I love Jeremiah,” Mainieri said. “… He’s been nothing but supportive. He’s been phenomenal, and he’s doing everything he can do to support the program. And I think he has confidence in me and my staff, and I have confidence in him.”
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The Gamecocks currently sit at 26-23 on the year with a 5-19 record in SEC play. The postseason is out of the question, unless they were to win the SEC Tournament. More realistically, they are fighting not to finish with the worst conference record in program history.
In 2019, the Gamecocks went 8-22 in the SEC under former head coach Mark Kingston. Mainieri’s group would need to go 4-2 in the final six conference games to avoid breaking that mark.
That’s the only thing that could be saved at this stage of the season. The results are what they are. Mainieri said he brought some of this on himself for saying he had a one-year plan at his introductory press conference last June. But he hopes this time next year, things will be in a much better place.
“At some point, we’ll be standing in front of you, and you all will be saying to me, you told us this was going to happen, and it will,” Mainieri said. “… I mean, people say that almost like I was guaranteeing that we’re going to Omaha the first year. I mean, you guys have followed sports and understand sports. When there’s a change, there’s a change for a reason.”
