It was nine years ago when a decision was made at Clemson that slowed down the progress of the baseball program at the time.
Following the 2015 season, then athletic director Dan Radakovich decided to part ways with Hall of Fame head coach Jack Leggett.
“This decision was not an easy one,” Radakovich said at the time. “There is no denying the successes of our program in the past have placed Clemson baseball in position to compete for championships. So, after my evaluation it came down to this. I think we can do better.”
Those were strong words from Radakovich. Some might argue it was harsh, especially considering all Leggett did for the program in his 22 years of running things.
Leggett never had a losing season. He made the NCAA Tournament 21 out of the 22 years he was there, and he took six of those teams to the College World Series, while nine also participated in Super Regionals.
The hardest part was the knowledge Leggett was on the verge of building another strong group of players who could’ve possibly taken the Tigers back to Omaha if given the chance.
Leggett recruited a top 5 class before being let go in 2015, one that consisted of several future Major Leaguers, including Seth Beer. This writer always felt Leggett was owed a couple of more years based on what he accomplished in his years at Clemson.
The Clemson Hall of Famer played a major role in the building of what is now the current player’s facility. He never got the opportunity to work in it, as he was let go a few months before it opened.
Yes, there was some success in the early years of the Monte Lee program. The Tigers won an ACC Tournament Championship, was a national seed and hosted three home regionals. But Lee’s teams could not get over the hump, and the Tigers continued their futility in regionals.
The program then suffered its first losing season since 1957 in 2021. In 2022, Clemson failed to make the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year after missing it just once in the previous 33 seasons.
The Tigers were not competing for championships, as Radakovich had promised when he parted ways with Leggett, setting up Graham Neff to make the first hard decision in his young career as an athletic director.
Neff decided not bring Lee back and opened up a national search to find his replacement. He also reached out to Leggett, who had drifted away from Clemson baseball for obvious reasons and asked him to help in the search for Clemson’s new coach and to be a part of the program again.
In the end, Neff was able to coax Erik Bakich away from Michigan after he took the Wolverines to the CWS Championship Series in 2019 and was one win away from a national championship.
Bakich is a Leggett disciple. He was a volunteer coach on the Tigers’ 2002 CWS team. He understands what Clemson Baseball is all about and where it wants to go.
Bakich says he can win the national championship at Clemson. Maybe he can.
After what we all saw out of the Clemson program this past weekend, why would we doubt him.
In two short years, he has done something at Clemson that had not happened in 14 years. He won a regional and now has Clemson two wins away from returning to the name of the place that is stitched on the back of their hats – Omaha.
In what was his first major hire as an athletic director, everything Neff did to restore the Clemson Baseball program has led us here today.
Neff deserves a lot of credit for not only making their true living legend a part of the baseball program again, but also for finding and bringing in one of the best baseball coaches in the country.
Clemson Baseball is back where it is supposed to be, at the top of college baseball competing for championships.
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