It was chilly. It was rainy. It was windy.

It did not feel like the first day of baseball practice at Clemson on Friday, but that is exactly what it was as the Tigers opened fall practice in the batting cages at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

“It’s awesome! I had a good summer, but I was definitely ready to be back. There is a new vibe. It is fantastic. I’m ready to get fall ball started,” outfielder Reed Rohlman said prior to Friday’s first practice.

For just the third time since 1958, Clemson opened baseball practice with a new coach. Monte Lee, who spent the previous seven seasons at the College of Charleston and was a longtime assistant coach at South Carolina prior to that, replaced Jack Leggett last June after the Tigers’ long time skipper was relieved of his duties following a 32-29 record.

Lee, 38 years old, brings in a new attitude, a new philosophy and youthful energy to the clubhouse.

“It was good with Leggett of course, but there is a new vibe,” Rohlman said. “There is a new coaching staff, and we are getting taught new things every day. Everyone is really buying into what they are saying and we all are just ready to start fall practice.”

Junior Eli White says the biggest difference is just the new faces on the coaching staff and the new personalities the players are adjusting to. Lee brought in Andrew See to be his new pitching coach and Greg Starbuck as the new volunteer assistant coach. Of course he retained hitting coach and recruiting coordinator Bradley LeCroy and Director of Operations Brad Owens from Leggett’s staff.

“Every coach has different ways of doing things,” White said. “Yeah, there are some differences, but the main thing is we are here to play baseball and we are excited to get this thing going.”

White’s head coach is too.

“As coaches and as players we have been working extremely hard in our skill work segment, in the weight room and in conditioning to get to this point,” Lee said. “That’s what we told the players in the very first meeting we had, our goal for the first month was to get them ready for team practice.

“When team practice starts that is our time to compete as hard as we can against each other. Guys are going to fight for jobs, along with trying to learn our philosophy and our way of doing things offensively and defensively on the base pads and on the pitching mound. We are just trying to coach our guys and develop our guys to the best of our ability for the upcoming spring so this fall is very, very crucial to us. It is the most important part of the season in my opinion.”

Lee says things have gone well the last two months in getting to know his players both on and off the field. He says they have all been very respectful of the coaching staff, they work hard, they listen and they have demonstrated great character traits.

“We have had a very easy transition up until this point simply because of the work ethic and the coach ability of the players and just how good they are here,” Lee said.

Fall practice continues through November and concludes with three Orange & Purple scrimmages from Nov. 6-8.