CLEMSON -- Close your eyes when you listen to Erik Bakich speak, and it's almost jarring to consider how similar the accent and speech pattern sounds to Jack Leggett.
You look up their birthplaces and find that they were born 3,500 miles apart (the former in San Jose, Calif., the latter in Bangor, Maine).
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So it's been a bit eerie for a lot of folks to see this dramatic turnaround coincide with not just Leggett returning to the program, and not just the retiring of his jersey (they've won 23 of 25 games since his slide into the turf), but also the elocution that sounds a lot alike.
Monte Lee brought a classic Southern drawl during his seven seasons at Clemson. So maybe the similarity we're referencing is more an "ain't from around here" accent than anything.
There's an homage to the past in everything we've seen and heard from Bakich during his first year at Clemson, and that certainly resonates with a fan base that is starved to get back to the days of regular trips to Omaha.
And while the sight of Leggett close by Bakich's side in the dugout last weekend presented yet another layer to this all coming full circle, there's perhaps a crucial distinction that can be made between their leadership styles.
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Leggett was wound tightly, and ultimately that came to be viewed as a knock on him and a reason his best teams couldn't push through.
Maybe the result would've been the same in Omaha in 2002 and 2010 even had someone with Dabo Swinney's galvanizing spirit been leading the Tigers.
Maybe the most common takeaway from both meltdowns against South Carolina -- that Clemson couldn't close the deal because it was fatally tight against the Gamecocks' comparatively loose demeanor -- is too simplistic.
We'd argue that takeaway was pretty close to accurate.
And we'd argue that Bakich's approach thus far seems the opposite, and therefore refreshing for a program that has for so long seemed to be caught up with excess emotional and psychological baggage.
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Bakich says this team is "playing with house money" because it has already cemented its reputation as a team that staged one of the most remarkable turnarounds in school history.
On that count we'd push back, because an NCAA flameout would certainly be a prominent part of the story if that happened.
The lack of a great pre-NCAA run was not why Leggett was fired, why Lee was hired, why Lee was fired, and why Bakich was hired.
The story of the last decade-plus has been a program that gradually slid away from the business of getting to Omaha.
Step one in getting back into that business is getting back into the business of playing host to NCAA Tournament games. But step two, actually winning those games and those regionals, is a vital step.
But in another sense it's hard to argue with Bakich's messaging articulated here:
"We truly feel like we've got house money. And we wouldn't feel that way had we not gone through it, and gotten drug through the mud for the first half of the season where Team 126 was going to be a team that was remembered for nothing. And now this is a team that, regardless of what happens this weekend, will be remembered for one of the best turnarounds that Clemson baseball could've asked for, and storylines for future generations of Clemson baseball players: Any time that any future teams hit a rough patch, to know that they are never out of the fight. Just look at what Team 126 did in the middle of their year."
Years ago under Leggett, there were times entering the postseason when you'd hear him talk about playing loose and free while wondering if that was truly the nature of the program under him.
As in: It's hard to orchestrate such a mindset by saying: "Relax, damnit!"
In the last few years under Lee it felt as if he was searching for the right buttons to push to the point it felt like grasping at straws.
This feels different. This style feels like who Bakich is as a person, and as a leader.
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So yes, Team 126 absolutely has to follow through by punctuating a special turnaround with postseason production. Just too many demons and painful memories to truly endorse the "house money" premise.
But the job of a head coach is not to defend a premise or theory. It's to galvanize a team and win games.
On that count he's succeeding.
And though the speech patterns and accent sound a lot like the guy who still wears No. 7, he's speaking a different language.
A language of authentic positivity, looseness and fun.
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