On Thursday afternoon, Clemson officially announced Monte Lee as its next baseball coach. It capped off what turned out to be a glacial hiring process—at least at the end—but nobody blames either side for doing its due diligence.
It’s worth it for everybody involved to take his time because of the importance of the hire. In these circumstances, there is always a risk. Firing coaches is generally seen as a step forward for a program, as is hiring replacements.
Firing coaches to hire new ones rarely results in a lesser program. (For an example to the contrary, see Bzdelik, Jeff.) Sometimes, though, the resulting product looks the same in terms of wins and losses. When I talk about those changes—a coaching change or a trade or any kind of transaction—I tend to think about whether a team “got better” or “got different”.
See, different and better aren’t the same. They’re mutually exclusive. In fact, they’re polar opposites in the world of coaching searches. When I’m talking about any replacement, using the word “different” isn’t exactly a term of endearment.
Monte Lee will certainly be different from Jack Leggett. He will have different philosophies. He will use different terminology. He will recruit different key areas in different ways. He will implement his expressed will for the baseball program in a different way. These things are inevitable.
But will Monte Lee be better than Jack Leggett, at least in the short term? His track record says it’s probable. As a first-time head coach, he won 64 percent of his games at the College of Charleston. He has won two conference titles in the past three seasons, in two different leagues. His team advanced to a Super Regional last season as a 4-seed, and the Cougars made the NCAA Tournament three additional times in Lee’s seven-year tenure.
Lee has fostered solid relationships throughout the state of South Carolina with high school coaches. He has shown an ability to develop talent at Charleston. In fact, the highest drafted college player in the state in last week’s MLB Draft was C of C right-handed pitcher Taylor Clarke—a third-round pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Two other Cougars were taken by pro organizations in this year’s draft.
Perhaps most importantly, many regarded Lee’s ballclub as the best in the state in 2015—even better than Clemson or South Carolina. The Cougars hit .300, scored over seven runs per game, were second in the country with 75 home runs, and posted a staff ERA of 3.45. Those numbers would seem to back up that particular claim.
Does the success of the 2015 College of Charleston Cougars translate directly to success over a period of several seasons at Clemson? No, it doesn’t. The day-to-day demands are higher due to a tougher schedule. There is a greater need for a higher number of talented players. That’s why every coaching hire is an inexact science.
All Dan Radakovich—and any other athletic director—can do is make the choice that has the highest probability of working out in the long run. When you have the kind of program Clemson has—a “premier” job nationally, according to Radakovich—you could definitely do worse than hiring a 40-win coach whose mid-major program has won a pair of conference titles and reached a Super Regional in the past three years after building a solid foundation over the previous handful of seasons.
Lee’s name often appears on lists of hot young coaches in college baseball. For Clemson, getting a hot young coach to replace a legend is just about the best case scenario.
Now comes the hard part: turning “different” into “better”.
God Bless!
WQ