The Paul Mainieri era didn’t last long at South Carolina.

Mainieri, who has over 1,500 career wins and led LSU to the 2009 national championship, is out as head coach five weeks into his second season in Columbia. The Gamecocks went 6-24 in the SEC in 2025 and were off to an 0-4 start in 2026. On Friday night, they lost 22-6 at home to Arkansas.

Monte Lee, previously the head coach at Clemson and the College of Charleston, will serve as the interim head coach for the rest of the season.

“After a conversation this morning with Coach Mainieri, we agreed that it would be in the best interest of the program that we part ways at this time,” South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati said in a statement released Saturday.

“I appreciate everything Paul has poured into our student-athletes and our program, not just at South Carolina, but throughout his career. He is a Hall of Fame coach and a world-class individual, and we wish him and his family all the best.”

South Carolina was one of the sport’s premier programs not too long ago, winning back-to-back national titles in 2010 and 2011 and finishing as the runner-up in 2012.

But the program has now cycled through three coaches since Ray Tanner retired following the 2012 season. Chad Holbrook, a Tanner assistant, was fired after leading South Carolina to the NCAA Tournament three times in five seasons. Mark Kingston was next, hired away from South Florida. He went to the NCAA Tournament four times in six full seasons but was just 83-96 in the SEC.

Mainieri, who retired at LSU following the 2021 season, due in part to health reasons, was a curious hire. He was 66 at the time and had been out of coaching for three years.

Mainieri went 641-283-3 in 15 seasons at LSU following a successful stint at Notre Dame, where he led the Fighting Irish to the NCAA Tournament in his final eight seasons.

Prior to Mainieri’s arrival, South Carolina had won fewer than 13 SEC games only once since the league went to a 30-game schedule in 1996. Last year, the Gamecocks won six SEC games and gave up 10 runs or more 13 times. This season, South Carolina has lost nonconference games to Northern Kentucky, Army, Queens, The Citadel and Charlotte.

“When Ray Tanner invited me to come out of three years of retirement to coach again, my goal was to work with young people again and restore the South Carolina program to greatness with a return to Omaha,” Mainieri said in a statement released Saturday. “My staff and I have worked diligently in an attempt to accomplish that goal. Unfortunately, that goal has not materialized as quickly as I would have liked and will take more time than I had anticipated and that is time that I just don’t have at my age.

“I want to make it clear that Ray Tanner, Jeremiah Donati, President Michael D. Amiridis, and the university leadership have supported me and the baseball program throughout my tenure. In short, I did not get the job done at a level that I expected, or the university deserves.”