For live updates on future press conferences, football fall camp, and the latest recruiting news, subscribe to the insider's forum.

After 14 seasons as a head coach at Charleston Southern and Clemson, Monte Lee is stepping back into the assistant coaching role.

South Carolina’s hitting coach/recruiting coordinator Chad Caillet announced his retirement to spend more time with his family, and head coach Mark Kingston tabbed Lee as the man to fill out his coaching staff ahead of a pivotal 2023 season for the program.

Lee was the head coach at Clemson for the last seven seasons but was fired after the Tigers missed the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons for the first time since it missed five in a row from 1982-1986.

Despite having other offers to swiftly return to the head coaching rankings, Lee elected to return to the program where he spent six years as an assistant under Ray Tanner.

Although to him, it was never really a decision.

“It’s the University of South Carolina; it’s pretty simple,” Lee said during his introductory press conference. “I’ve been here. I know what this program is all about, and I know what this program can do. It didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the roster or anything like that, it’s the University of South Carolina. I was here for six years; I grew up 30 minutes from here. It was a no-brainer.”

The Gamecocks qualified for the postseason all six seasons with Lee on the coaching staff from 2003-2008, winning the SEC Tournament in 2004 and reaching the College World Series twice as part of Tanner’s six trips to Omaha overall.

But the program has not been back since Tanner’s last season in 2012 and has missed the NCAA Tournament in three of the last six completed seasons. Now the job is to get them back up, something Lee will have a hand in both on game days and during the offseason.

“We’re going to be really, really big on the players being selfless and putting the program first and dominating their role,” Lee said. “I think that’s very, very important. If you want to play at a National Championship level, you have to be willing to sacrifice for the program, be selfless and dominate your role.”

So what is Lee’s role? Officially, he is an associate head coach, specifically working with hitters and as a recruiting coordinator.

It is an opportunity for him to practice what he preached to his players as a head coach, stepping back into a more specialized position as opposed to being a program’s central figure as the head coach.

“My sole mission as an assistant coach was to dominate the role that I was in as an assistant coach,” he said. “The title does not necessarily matter to me, I’ll be quite honest. My job is to do the very best job I can for the University of South Carolina baseball program. To recruit the best players I can, to develop the players that we have here, and to help Mark Kingston get to Omaha and win a National Championship. That is my role, and I am going to do everything I can to dominate that role.”

From an offensive perspective, he is going to have to dominate his role if South Carolina is going to be competitive.

The Gamecocks were dead last in the SEC in nearly every major offensive category a season ago, including batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, runs scored, and home runs.

On the flip side, Lee’s Clemson teams have been in the middle of the ACC pack offensively the last two seasons, finishing eighth in the conference in home runs and sixth in runs during his final campaign leading the Tigers.

Kingston attempted to right the ship this offseason by adding seven position players in the transfer portal, two of whom played under Lee at Clemson in catcher Jonathan French and outfielder Dylan Brewer. Without question, whether or not the offense turns around will be what makes or breaks South Carolina’s 2023 season — and perhaps Kingston’s coaching tenure in general. As he tries to zero in on his role with the program, his players doing the same might be the solution to their offensive woes.

“One of the first things that we’re going to talk about with the guys is understanding what you are,” Lee said. “You’re either a buffalo or a deer. We don’t want the buffaloes trying to be a deer, and we don’t want the deer trying to be a buffalo, and it’s really that simple.”

The “deer or buffalo” mentality refers to faster, more contact-based hitters — deer — in contrast to power hitters who can help the Gamecocks climb out of the cellar in home runs — the buffaloes. It is a simpler view of a complex issue, but a breakdown that drives home Kingston’s approach of everyone focusing on a role.

“It’s really about trying to maximize what that player can do,” Lee said. “Our goal is to put together a lineup of guys that can get on base and can score runs. It’s all about scoring runs; however, you score those runs doesn’t matter. Whether it’s via the home run or via the small ball, we’ve got to score runs.”

It is about as cut and dry as possible. The team who scored fewer runs than anyone else in its conference has to score more.

He knows his role. Now he has to dominate it.