Paul Mainieri returns to the SEC while poaching integral piece of LSU Baseball

The LSU Tigers fanbase was saddened when Paul Mainieri announced his retirement from College Baseball as he stepped away to deal with health issues. The long time coach of the Tigers led the team from 2007 to 2021 winning the College World Series in 2009. Mainieri finished his time at LSU with a 641-283-3 record while winning 1505 games overall while winning the SEC four times and the SEC tournament six times.

Jay Johnson and the LSU Tigers will now face Paul Mainieri as Mainieri is set to be announced as South Carolina's head coach according to D1 Baseball's Kendall Rogers.

The move certainly comes as a shock as Mainieri was in the running to land head coaching jobs at Notre Dame and the University of Miami but, both teams went separate ways.

The move will hurt LSU as Mainieri is poaching Terry Rooney on as his pitching coach. For Jay Johnson, Rooney has served as his Director of Program Development and Recruiting which will be a massive blow as Johnson looks to retool this roster.

With all that Mainieri gave LSU, it'll be exciting to see him return to Alex Box Stadium to take on the Tigers although it will take some getting used to. The biggest question for South Carolina fans will be what does Mainieri look like as a recruiter as he retired before this modern NIL era of college sports.

LSU Baseball undergoes a re-tool without top recruiter

The LSU Baseball team kicked off its off-season retool adding relief pitcher Chandler Dorsey from USF via the transfer portal. Johnson will likely need to replace his starting rotation, Tommy White, and Jared Jones along with any other transfer portal losses. The Tigers will return a ton of talent next season but, they'll have to reload without Terry Rooney.