With LSU baseball’s return to prominence, Mainieri beams with pride _ and sighs with relief

For Mainieri, LSU success brings joy and relief

BATON ROUGE, La. — Paul Mainieri’s eyes smiled as he envisioned a purple-and-gold armada bringing jambalaya, gumbo and Mardi Gras beads north to Nebraska.

Such staples of Louisiana life are in abundance around Rosenblatt Stadium whenever Tigers fans follow their team to the College World Series. And with LSU bound for Omaha later this week, the party is on again.

“We’re going to have a lot of fun up there,” LSU’s head coach promised after the Tigers (51-16) dispatched Rice in the minimum two games during the NCAA tournament’s super regional round last weekend.

With two trips to Omaha in his first three seasons at LSU, it’s hard now to question the wisdom of Mainieri’s decision to leave behind rock-solid job security at Notre Dame for the pressure of leading one of the most dominant college baseball programs of the last two-plus decades.

Of course, if his past two seasons had been anything like his first, Mainieri might have felt more akin to someone being eaten alive by swarming mosquitoes in a south Louisiana swamp.

The Tigers went 29-26-1 in 2007 and didn’t even qualify for the Southeastern Conference tournament. Such results simply won’t do at LSU, which won five national titles in a recent 10-season span (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 2000) under former coach and now athletic director emeritus Skip Bertman.

Consider Raymond “Smoke” Laval’s fate after he became the first LSU head coach of the post-Bertman era.

In five seasons, Laval twice led the Tigers to CWS appearances. The Tigers made the NCAA tournament in each of his first four seasons, and lost in the regional round only once during that span. But LSU fell short of the postseason in Laval’s fifth year, finishing with a 35-24 record. It was the first time in 18 years LSU had been left out of an NCAA tournament. Laval resigned soon after.

Mainieri, familiar with the Louisiana college baseball scene from his playing days — one season at LSU and two at the University of New Orleans — was intrigued by the LSU opening and quickly became a top candidate. Whether it was really worth trying to live up to Bertman’s legacy, particularly when he’d already established a winning tradition in 12 seasons at Notre Dame, was something Mainieri and his wife, Karen, needed to discuss.

Mainieri was in the midst of an exceptional 12-year run with the Irish, having led them to 11 40-win seasons, nine Big East titles, nine NCAA regional appearances and a berth in the 2002 College World Series. There was no certainty he’d do any better at LSU, where the program was showing early signs of decline.

“When Karen and I talked about this job, the reason we decided to take it was because we knew that if we didn’t, we would regret it for the rest of our lives,” Mainieri said. “We felt that we could make a difference. For me, the challenge was getting great kids and great coaches around us. I knew we would have great support.”

By support, Mainieri meant resources, facilities and crowds. When Bertman retired from coaching, he turned his attention to building a new baseball stadium that would stand as a testament to the program’s prowess.

The new $38 million Alex Box stadium, with about 9,200 seats and 18 luxury suites, spacious locker rooms and batting cages housed in a handsome building of stucco walls and a red tile roof, opened this season. Paid attendance was 403,056 for 42 games, an average of 9,596 per game, marking the 14th straight season LSU led the nation in college baseball attendance.

It’s a dream situation for Mainieri — as long as he keeps winning.

“I hope I can be here for another decade,” he said. “I’d like to see us go to Omaha several times. I’d like to see us win several championships. You’re never going to see me be satisfied and content, but I do feel very proud right now.”