How good is the Clemson baseball job? What about Monte Lee’s contract buyout?
Clemson baseball fired head coach Monte Lee on Tuesday after the Tigers missed the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year.
Lee had been head coach of Clemson’s baseball program for seven seasons, during which the Tigers posted a 242-136 (.640) overall record and 102-86 (.543) record against ACC competition.
Clemson athletic director Graham Neff held a virtual press conference after the announcement to discuss Lee’s dismissal. Here’s the full transcript of Neff’s comments.
Opening statement: “Tough day. Tough day. Never easy, decisions like this. And certainly, with my role here, it’s important to evaluate and to make tough decisions. And that’s what this is, and primarily because of who Coach Lee is as a person, first of all, and as a leader of Clemson baseball, and how he’s always led Clemson baseball in a first class manner, and has been an incredibly important part of our department. Just as a head coach, as one of our 14 head coaches, and to have the role of leading Clemson baseball, which is a program of the highest expectation. Monte’s embraced that throughout his time here and coming here, so this transition has just not been easy. But Monte, the discussions that we had today, and as we work through the evaluation, has handled and responded in a first class manner, as we we would all expect and know Monte to be, which makes it tough. And for him and his staff and his players and how they’ve carried themselves in representing Clemson baseball is to be commended, and is of the utmost respect that I have, and making decisions like this difficult. But couldn’t be more excited for the for the path ahead for the trajectory for Clemson baseball. We have high expectations, a strong, strong tradition, and getting really excited to chart a new course, turn the page, have a chapter that’s a different era. And I think that our ability to invest, respond, win and win big are the expectations that I have for all of our sports, but in particular, Clemson baseball with the strong tradition, and background and attributes that it has. And so that’s the intention. I certainly had an afternoon long of meetings, starting with Monte and staff and the team and I’ve had that type of feedback and perspectives to them, and dialogue. And today’s all about about Monte and his players and staff. And tomorrow we’ll dive into a search officially and get going to chart the course ahead for Clemson baseball. Couldn’t be more excited for what that looks like, for the opportunities out there. And to have a great experience for the Clemson student-athletes here and for our fans, to our fans, for your perspective and support over the years, over the decades, but certainly here as we transition. And for the path ahead, couldn’t be more appreciative of the strong fan base and tradition that Clemson baseball has and our supporters for that. So just a couple opening thoughts, certainly look forward to a lot of the questions and dialogue on it. And so I’ll stop there and open it up for any questions.”
Question: I’m curious, can you explain what Monte’s buyout looks like? Will you be able to spend whatever you need to get the best coach that you feel like you need to bring in?
Neff: “Monte’s contract, which should be available, he has two years remaining on his contract that we’ll certainly pay out and abide by that contract of course. It equates to about $500,000 that will that we have planned for and will certainly support in a first class manner, his transition. Listen, from a market and where we intend to go with the search, as I said, I consider Clemson baseball top 15 job, period. With the tradition, the resources, the facility, the fan base, the talent within the state of South Carolina and region. And I think that that’s where Clemson baseball should be. What that means from a competition -- for postseason, regional. Super Regionals, Omaha. We’ve been to 12 College World Series and intend to increase that number. So therefore, Davis, yes, the ability to go out and attract that caliber of coach is where we intend to start. Certainly have done our due diligence on the market and what that looks like from an investment standpoint for coach and staff and program and intend to, as I said, win and win big and are prepared to invest, and invest big, as it relates to attracting a coach to be able to restore and meet those expectations that we have for Clemson baseball.”
Q: I know Monte said last week that he expected to be back and was hoping to be back. Just what were the conversations like with him and the players once you delivered that news?
Neff: “Monte’s been consistent throughout his seven years here of owning it, you know, and he’s a no excuse kind of coach, kind of person. And as we talked over the weekend and last couple days, with Monte and Kyle Young, who’s our sports supervisor, dove into all those details, big picture, small picture. And to your question, Matt, you know, Monte certainly viewed himself as the best man for the job ahead and in an incredibly appropriate and confident manner that he is. And that was the expectation that I had of him and know him to be. So yeah, while he has that confidence, and we certainly talked on, on details of the program from where the status is, and to look back and to look ahead, you know, was very, very open minded about what that looks like for Monte from a continuation standpoint, but ultimately came back to the current condition and the performance. This is a performance decision, not a person decision, as it relates to who Monte is as a coach and staff. I just feel like our relevance and our current performance hasn’t been where it should be and has been for Clemson baseball. And so a different voice and a different direction, ultimately, is that decision that I made, and certainly worked with President (Jim) Clements and our leadership, with conviction and support for that decision for us to go and chart a new course.”
Q: I know Bradley has stayed on right now to help out. Will he have an opportunity to interview for the job? I know that that was the case last time when Coach Leggett was leaving.
Neff: “I have asked Bradley LeCroy and Brad Owens, two Clemson alums, and Bradley is a former player here, to help with this transition. You know, Will, don’t anticipate to initially consider Bradley for the position, but do perceive him to be an incredibly important part of a transition process here. And he carried himself in that regard last time, seven years ago, and have had time to meet with him and Brad this afternoon and charge them and ask them to help do that transitionally. So, so that’s where Bradley is at, and relationally with him and the players and the recruits, an incredibly key role. We very much recognize that transfer portal, and just changes like this, cause attrition, cause questions, and that’s to be expected, and we have those expectations. But my message to the team this afternoon was two things. One, again, we intend to win and win big, and they chose Clemson to be a Clemson student. They chose Clemson to be coached by Monte Lee, but they chose Clemson, and they chose Clemson to go to Omaha and want to restore that. And that’s my charge to go out and attract a coach to do that. And then also just my appreciation, respect and expectations for them of how they carry themselves as Clemson students and as Clemson ballplayers. And we’re here for them as an administration, I want to be very collaborative with the student athletes just to get feedback from a process standpoint, as we get into a search standpoint. And so I want to be very, very open and transparent with them just to have them be as connected as they can to Clemson while we go search for new leadership.”
Q: I just wanted to ask in terms of the actual candidates you’ll consider, does it have to be an established current college head coach, could it be an assistant with good credentials or even someone outside of the college ranks?
Neff: “Not resigned to any type profile. So I think the answer to any of those that you suggest, current head coach, high major head coach, mid major head coach, so to speak, top assistant, professional background, very open, not exclusive to any type profile. But again, intend to invest and go seek the best, you know, and that’s easy to say, but again, we’ve done our due diligence on the market and have a sense of where that could be and where that could take us. And intend to start with with high profile, accomplished coaches, identify a great fit for Clemson mutually and work from there. So that level of investment and focus is where we’re going to start and whatever profile that shows up to be, we’re open to to any type background or current condition.”
Q: You talk a lot about expectations. What will be your expectation for the coach in his or her first year?
Neff: “In his first year, gosh, I don’t have any specifics in year one, other than to be a strong leader and lead with integrity on and off the field. Academics, all the other aspects of being a head coach at Clemson, whatever the sport may be, and be competitive again. Want to win. But that’s a body of work. And as we look to evaluate Monte here, I looked at it very much from a body of work standpoint, ultimately leading to the decision today. So to answer your question, Amanda, very much have expectations to grow and mature the program, certainly transition it. What that looks like from the culture of the program, from talent, from roster development, you know, there’s going to be time here, and there’s going to be investment and support. You know, it’s important for us from a scholarship and an aid standpoint, it’s an incredibly important aspect for college baseball, and for a lot of our equivalency sports that we have great tools in the toolbox for our head coaches to go out and recruit, attract and build a program. So expectations on myself are to continue to support and invest with a new head coach and give them the resources to compete at a high level and again, be relevant and competitive nationally. And yes, that means regionals, Supers and Omaha. Those are the broader body of work expectations.”
Q: I’m sure there are coaches out there right now in the NCAA tournament that you’d like to talk to. How do you try to balance going through a search with some of those guys have their own kind of situations they’re dealing with right now?
Neff: “You’re right, Matt. And that’s where baseball is a little unique than maybe some other sports that there’s probably some aspect of hurry up and wait. If that’s a phrase that that applies, just because you’re right, there’s certainly going to be coaches that we want to talk to that we want to respect their current roles and their current teams and go about the process in a first class manner. And so again, today is all about Monte, our current staff and student athletes. Tomorrow, we’ll be proverbially rolling up the sleeves in the due diligence on the search. But we’ll need to balance that with the time of year and with regionals this weekend, etc. So, yeah, you’re right. It’s one of those that we’ll start to dive into and see who’s available, who’s willing to talk or who maybe has some interest and how we go about balancing that. And that’s where baseball is just a little unique than others. So it’s a condition that we’ll manage. We have a plan, have a timeline as such, and we’ll work the process.”
Q: I’m curious, do you do you feel like the talent level in the program is where it needs to be to compete in the upper half of the ACC at this point? And in terms of recruiting -- a strong recruiter, is that’s gonna be something that you may weigh more heavily than usual for this job?
Neff: “The talent evaluation, Davis, you know, again, we have great ballplayers here, always have at Clemson. And I think that, you know, the talent level, and certainly our level of performance, hasn’t risen to the level that we expect that I’ve articulated. And so when we finished, you know, 11th and 12th in the ACC, that’s clearly big drivers towards this change. Talked about that with Monte very candidly and directly. So, to answer your question, do we need more talent? Absolutely. Does it lead itself to someone that’s really well versed and has chops from recruiting and relationship and travel ball and high school and those type of things? Those are really compelling attributes for coaches. Absolutely. I do think, too, again, I’m putting some of the onus back on on me and our administration, that we continue to give our baseball program, in this case, great tools to recruit. Again, I know there’s been a lot of discussion on aid and scholarship support, and how are we appropriately supporting the 11.7 scholarships that we have. And so we’ve taken steps administratively to build that support with summer school, fundraised dollars and how to add that to a student’s full tenure as a student here at Clemson and how that would allow us to stretch the scholarship dollars. We call it the CAP award program -- the Clemson Academic Performance award. ... We’ve been incredibly aggressive in how we’ve set that program and policy here for Clemson, for all of our sports, all of our student athletes, and specifically and intentionally baseball and softball for Coach Rittman and our baseball coach, to use those dollars to be very flexible on just adding dollars from an aid standpoint, to student athletes. So, Davis, the academic type of market is another lever that I know we’ve talked about off and on, that I won’t dive into. But to answer your question, Davis, that it’s important on us administratively, when we’ve taken taken steps -- and we will continue to take those -- to have great opportunities for our coaches and our baseball coach to recruit and raise that talent level to the point that we expect to compete nationally.”
Q: What’s the timeline like for getting a new coach in? Do you want to try to get this done as quick as possible?
Neff: “Yeah, move expeditiously, Will, absolutely. And as we worked through the evaluation and discussions with Monte, again, moved expeditiously through those and want to continue in the search. But again, want to be incredibly respectful for the time of year with baseball in postseason and regionals and maybe where we would want to target some coaches. So no set timeline. We have a couple of scenarios, just based on availability and candidates to discuss. But want to move quick, are incredibly bullish on our job and the profile of our job as a top 15 job and the interest that it would have, and again, our desire to win and win big and the requisite investment and resources that that would entail. We’re ready to present a great package to get into those conversations with the timeline TBD.”
This story was originally published May 31, 2022 at 5:42 PM.
