Don’t worry Clemson baseball fans, head coach Monte Lee is not going anywhere and that includes the University of South Carolina.
Though Lee is good friends with current USC athletic director and former head baseball coach Ray Tanner, sources close to Lee tell The Clemson Insider he is extremely happy at Clemson and he is not going anywhere.
Rumors and reports started circulating on Tuesday that Lee was a candidate for the Gamecocks’ head coaching vacancy after word got out that Chad Holbrook resigned as Carolina’s head coach. However, TCI has learned that Lee has no interest in the job.
One source close to Lee told TCI “Monte came to Clemson for a reason and that has not changed. He is happy where he is.”
Lee just finished up his second season at Clemson after guiding the Tigers to a 42-21 record and a second straight home regional. Though the Tigers have not advanced to a super regional, they have shown marked improvement.
This year, Lee came within one win of taking the Tigers back to a super regional. The Tigers also won the 2016 ACC Championship in Lee’s first season. In his first two years in Tigertown, his teams are a combined 86-41 overall.
Lee spent six seasons at South Carolina under Tanner, when they coached two College World Series teams together. Lee has said many times in the past that Tanner is his mentor and the two talk frequently.
However, a Clemson administrator told TCI on Wednesday that South Carolina has not requested to speak with Lee and that “he is not going” to South Carolina.
TCI learned when Lee was interviewed for the Clemson job two years ago he told the hiring committee—when asked would he ever leave Clemson for South Carolina if the job came open—that if Clemson gave him the opportunity to be its next coach then he would be a Clemson Tiger for life and his plan would be to retire at Clemson.
When he was officially hired at Clemson in June of 2016, Lee called Clemson “a dream job” for him.
Lee just moved into a brand new house he had built last week, a house that took his wife Eryn Lee and his four daughters three weeks to move into. Also, two of Lee’s daughters, Shelby and Blaire, are both attending Clemson in the fall.