Paul Mainieri Reportedly Interviewed by Texas for HC Vacancy

As first reported by D1 Baseball’s Kendall Rogers and later confirmed through sources by The Advocate, The University of Texas has interviewed Paul Mainieri about their open head coaching job. The Texas job is open this year after the painfully drawn out end to Augie Garrido’s career finally came this season as the Horns hovered under .500 for most of the season. Because apparently no one can actually fire some at Texas, Garrido didn’t retire, he just “took another role in the athletic department.” The last few weeks have seen the upper echelon of college coaches across the nation be linked to the job, followed shortly by hefty pay raises and the usual “renewed commitment” to facilities upgrades. Florida’s Kevin O’Sullivan, Virginia’s Brian O’Connor, UCLA’s John Savage, and even Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin have all been said to be legitimate candidates, and most of them have spurned the Horns in the last few weeks.

Which brings us to the very real situation of Texas asking Paul Mainieri if he wants to become the skipper in Austin. It is completely logical that Texas would ask. Despite allowing the program to circle to bowl for a few years while Garrido refused to recognize that his career should have been over, Texas is still Texas. It’s still one of the Top 10 jobs in the country, with a television station that carries every single Texas baseball home game live to a nationwide audience and a pocket book to pull anyone from anywhere. They aren’t looking to hire some up-and-comer, they want an established champion, and the list of guys they have left to ask is dwindling fast. Mainieri is a winner, a champion, a man who knows how to recruit nationally and locally, and, as we have written, can turn almost any team into a winner.

So Mainieri is a candidate for Texas, and LSU will need to pay to keep him. Which is where we depend on our lovely athletics administration to get the job done and OH GOD IT’S ALL ON FIRE ALREADY. The past athletics season has shown the true abilities of Joe Alleva and the Board of Supervisors to royally screw up even the simplest of situations, so forgive me for not having any faith whatsoever that this won’t get botched too. As pointed out by Tiger Rag’s Cody Worsham, Paul Mainieri currently makes less than embattled women’s basketball coach Nikki Fargas, which makes about as much sense as keeping Johnny Jones around after failing to make the tournament, or trying to fire Les Miles, but I digress...

Mainieri is a great coach who deserves to be highly compensated. He’s also got most of his family living in and around the Baton Rouge area. Frankly, the only reason I can possibly see him taking the Texas job is if they outbid us for his next paycheck, which would be inexcusable. As we go over ad-nauseum when it comes to money at LSU, the athletic department is separate from the budget problems affecting the university. If Alleva botches this he should be tarred and feathered, then run out of town on a rail. PAY THAT MAN HIS MONEY.