Q and A With LSU Coaches Les Miles and Paul Mainieri

By Garrett Lumpkin


Last month, the LSU Tiger Tour made its annual stop in Westlake at the Isle of Capri Casino. I had a chance to talk with LSU head baseball coach Paul Mainieri, and LSU head football coach Les Miles. Mainieri’s Tigers just won the college baseball national championship, and Miles’ Tigers are gearing up for another football season.

LSU Football Head Coach Les Miles

The defense really struggled last year and you made some changes in the off-season to
correct that. You brought in John Chavis as the defensive coordinator, Brick Haley to
coach the defensive linemen, and Ron Cooper to coach the secondary. How has that new
group gelled through spring practice and over the summer?

I think our guys have an existing culture of dominant defense. John has great experience
and has the same impression that that’s the way defense is played. Our guys have really
embraced him, enjoyed him and I think he’s made a great introduction to his defense this
spring. When you bring in Brick Haley, who comes from the NFL, he brings great
technique work to our guys. Our guys on the defensive line have enjoyed him. Ron
Cooper has great experience with the secondary. I think the transition has been good and
I look forward to how they will play.

Jordan Jefferson looks like he is the frontrunner for the starting quarterback job. He
played well late last season, especially in your big bowl victory. What have you seen
from Jefferson throughout the off-season as he heads into his sophomore season?

He’s bigger and stronger. He certainly has a lot more experience on the field. He won’t
go into a game that he hasn’t experienced in one way or another. He played on the road,
and he played on the road in a bowl game and won. Really, this summer he has probably
shown more leadership than what’s due for a young guy. I think he’ll be much improved
this fall.

I want to get your thoughts on the state of the SEC. With all of the big name coaches in
the league, and these days it seems like any team in the conference can beat you. What do
you think about the current state of your league?

I think it is as competitive a football conference as there is in America. I think it requires
your teams to play at a very high level week in and week out. I think that’s good. I think
it’s good for the fans and it’s good for us. I look forward to playing in big games and I
think our team does.

Your first three years in Baton Rouge were so successful. At least 11 wins in each season.
But last year was a bit of a tough year with the 8-5 record. How has the off-season been
for you, coming off a sub par season?

I think our guys understand that we want to regain the position in the SEC that we’ve
had. I think the guys are hungrier, there’s a little more wanting, more ambitious, I think
it’s been good. The summer has been good and I think our guys are looking forward to
playing.
LSU Baseball Head Coach Paul Mainieri

Congratulations on a fantastic season. What an incredible run in Omaha at the College World Series. What has life been like since winning the national championship of college
baseball?

Thank you very much for the congratulatory message. It still hasn’t really sunk in, it’s
kind of surreal. Your whole life you pray that you’ll have an opportunity to coach a team
to a national championship, and then it happens and you’re not sure how to act or how to
feel. I’ve received so many wonderful letters, phone calls, text messages and emails that
I’ve just been spending my time trying to respond to everybody. It’s a great experience.
It’s something I’m sure that in time will sink in.

After losing to Texas in game two of the championship series, what did you tell your
team?

The message I gave to my players was very simple. I said look, if this was our very first
meeting in August and I told you on that day that we were going to play one game for the
national championship, winner take all, and we were going to have Anthony Ranaudo
pitching for us, would any of you guys take that deal? And they all nodded their heads of
course. And I said, well that’s our situation. So we’re not going to hang our heads about
this loss tonight. We’re going to walk out of here with our chins up. We’re going to walk
out confident, believing in ourselves and knowing that tomorrow night we’re going to
come out here and whip Texas. I wanted them to get a good positive frame of mind right
from that moment, and go to bed that night dreaming of winning the national
championship the next night. And my goodness, they went out there and did it!

LSU Baseball is Back Baby!

By Garrett Lumpkin

It has been nine long years since the LSU Tigers last won the College World Series, but there is a very good chance that the streak will end later this month. The Tigers are wrapping up their most impressive season since that last national title back in 2000.

LSU won all five of its baseball national championships in a ten year stretch between 1991 and 2000. With that kind of success, LSU Tiger fans grew to expect a run at the national title every year, or at least an annual trip to Omaha, Nebraska, site of the College World Series.
However, that has not been the case for much of the last decade.

Since Skip Bertman stepped down as head coach of the LSU baseball program in 2001, the Tigers have produced some pretty good results. But in Baton Rouge, pretty good is not good enough for the LSU baseball program.

Longtime LSU assistant coach Smoke Laval succeeded Bertman as head coach of the Tigers in 2002, and learned just how hard it is to replace a legend. Laval experienced some highlights at LSU as he led the Tigers to the College World Series in 2003 and 2004. However, LSU went 0-2 on each of those trips to Omaha and looked nothing like the dominant Tiger teams of the 1990’s.

Things started going downhill for Laval and the Tigers after that. In 2005 LSU failed to win a NCAA Regional in Baton Rouge for the first time in 11 years. Then in 2006 the Tigers won just 35 games, their lowest win total since Bertman’s rookie year in 1984, and weren’t even invited to the NCAA Tournament.

It was time for a change, and Smoke Laval was forced to resign after the 2006 season.
In June of 2006 LSU began an extensive nationwide search for its next head coach. Notre Dame Head Coach Paul Mainieri was familiar with LSU baseball having played one season for the Tigers in 1976. He saw the potential in Baton Rouge and decided to leave Notre Dame for LSU.

During his initial press conference Mainieri made it very clear that he understood the tradition of LSU baseball.

“Make no mistake about it,” Mainieri said, “The goal is to return LSU to the pinnacle position in college baseball. I have all the confidence in the world that we can do that here.”

When Mainieri took over in 2007, the LSU baseball program was in rough shape. The Tigers won only 29 games that season and finished tenth in the SEC, their worst conference finish since 1955.

The 2008 season looked like more of the same as the Tigers were hovering around the .500 mark at 23-16-1 with four weeks remaining in the regular season. At that point Mainieri’s record at LSU was 52-42-2 and I’m sure that many LSU baseball fans were questioning the hire.

Then something amazing happened. LSU went on to win its next 23 games, establishing a new SEC record for consecutive wins. Mainieri was named the college baseball coach of the year, and LSU won its first game at the College World Series since the championship game in 2000. The 49 victories were also the most for LSU since 2000 when the Tigers won 52 games.

The 2009 season began with great expectations as LSU entered the year ranked number one in the nation.

That preseason ranking, the strong finish to the 2008 season, and the fact that the Tigers were opening up a new ballpark in 2009, put LSU under the microscope all season long.

With all of that pressure, the Tigers have performed remarkably, never once even dropping out of the top ten in the college baseball polls. LSU started the season with a bang winning its first nine games of the year. The Tigers went on to win the SEC regular season championship, and their second straight SEC Tournament championship. The Tigers swept their NCAA Regional in Baton Rouge 3-0, and also swept Rice in the Super Regional 2-0.

LSU is back in Omaha, and for the first time since 2000, the Tigers are one of the favorites to win it all. They started the College World Series with victories over Virginia and Arkansas. That’s significant because 17 of the last 19 College World Series champions began the tournament 2-0.

If LSU wins the national championship, that would give the Tigers six titles which would tie them with Texas. Only Southern California has more College World Series championships with 12.

Local Legend Making Major Impact in Big Leagues

By Garrett Lumpkin

Joe Lawrence may be the most celebrated baseball player ever to come out of Southwest Louisiana.

In 1996 Lawrence was selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft straight out of Barbe High School. He was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays who he played for from 1996-2002, and finished his baseball playing career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003.

It looked like his MLB career was over, but another sport reconnected Lawrence to the big leagues.

In the summer of 2003, Lawrence received a phone call from the LSU Football team. Lawrence, who had not played football since high school, was given an opportunity to play for the Tigers at the age of 27.

“It was something that intrigued me, and it didn’t help that I had some best friends that wanted to see that happen,” Lawrence said, “I got the family support that I needed to make the decision, so I decided to give it a whirl.”

Joe’s LSU Football encounter was short-lived as he suffered a devastating knee injury, but the experience was still extremely productive. That’s where Lawrence was introduced to Jack Marucci who is LSU’s head athletic trainer.

Marucci was a big baseball fan and spent some of his free time hand crafting wooden baseball bats for his son. Knowing Joe’s background, Jack sought the former major leaguer’s opinion on the bats, and Joe told the trainer that the bats needed to be in the hands of major leaguers.

Lawrence, Marucci, and Kurt Ainsworth, who is another former major leaguer, formed The Marucci Bat Company.

“In 2004 we got licensed by the major leagues,” Lawrence said. “We go from eight clients then, to now where we are in the hundreds.”

The Marucci Bat Company, which is located in Baton Rouge, has come a long way since 2004. Marucci is currently the second leading bat manufacturer in Major League Baseball behind the Louisville Slugger.

“If there is one marketing scheme we used, it was letting the right people swing our bats,” said Lawrence. “It has caused a ripple effect through the major leagues. We have clients from every organization in the league. Our clients are typically the better players on the team, meaning character wise. They just happen to be great players as well.”

Marucci’s clients include Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals and Manny Ramirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are two of MLB’s top sluggers in the game today.
And while Marucci has well over two hundred major league clients, the company produces thousands of bats each year.

“We did close to 18,000 bats in 2008,” said Lawrence. “This year we projected 20,000 and we’re well ahead of that pace.”

Lawrence is still very actively involved with the Barbe baseball program. Last year Marucci developed a prototype aluminum bat called the Cat 5. Lawrence allowed Barbe to use the bat last year, and maybe it’s just a coincidence, but Barbe won the state championship.

“Our kids love it,” said Barbe head baseball coach Glenn Cecchini. We just have one bat because they are being manufactured right now and all of the kids say it’s the best bat they’ve ever used.”

“It’s the hottest bat on the market as far as technology,” Lawrence said. “If you get any hotter, that’s an aluminum bat term meaning how the ball comes off of the barrel, it’s going to be illegal. So we are right on that threshold. We’ve pushed it as far as we can push it.”

The future certainly looks bright for Joe Lawrence and The Marucci Bat family. With the launch of its new aluminum bat, Marucci expects to become a major player in the aluminum bat industry, just as the company has done with its wooden bat line.

1st picture player at Barbe High School. 2nd picture shows the player during his MLB days. 3rd picture shows the bats that his company manufactures.