What the Next Few Weeks Will Look Like for LSU Baseball Coach Jay Johnson

When Jay Johnson took the podium to introduce himself to the LSU faithful, he had already dove headfirst into his work. The night prior to his introductory press conference, he met face-to-face with the first member of the current LSU roster who is deciding whether to move on or return to school.

He'd already been hard at work for three or four days, contacting assistant coaches around the country, reaching out to the players on the current roster and the recruits of the 2022 class with the MLB Draft on the horizon.

There are immediate points to address with this program as Johnson settles into his new position, starting with filling out an assistant coaching staff.

Known as one of the great recruiters over his years at Arizona, Johnson said he'll bring on an assistant recruiting coordinator as well as experienced pitching and hitting coaches. Johnson is casting a wide net in this search as he wants to fill out a staff that can recruit in all corners of the country and everything in between.

He didn't give an exact time frame of when the coaching staff will be filled as Johnson wants to make sure he finds the right fit at each position.

"I will not sacrifice time to make sure we have the right people. The most important people in influencing the players that we all want to play great, be great students and be great people is the coaching staff," Johnson said. "We spend more time with them than their own families, so I'm working diligently. It is not a narrow search because it's too important to get that right. We need a staff that can recruit at an elite level, meaning evaluating talent."

While he's filling out a staff, Johnson made it a point to reach out to many of the players on the roster currently. There's no doubt LSU will return one of the more exciting cores in the SEC with Dylan Crews, Tre Morgan, Cade Doughty and pitchers like Garrett Edwards, Javen Coleman and Ty Floyd.

Those are just a few of the names as to why Johnson doesn't view this job as a rebuild but rather a "reboot." The roster he's inherited is loaded with talent and the key is unlocking it further through development and recruiting. Johnson mentioned he's already watched film and has been in communication with players on what they need to be working on this offseason.

"We want them to do better and give them a blueprint to improve and to get better at," Johnson said. "It starts there, and the only way you start to do that is by building trust, developing relationships, and if you're going to win and win quickly, you need immediate buy-in. So we've started that process. I'd be lying if I said, hey, I know I have the trust of every player in that locker room. I don't because I've only looked one of them in the eye face to face at this point in time, but I can't wait."

The last bit of what the next few weeks will look like is how Johnson will attack the recruiting class and transfer portal. Under Nolan Cain, the 2022 class was shaping up to be one of the best in the country and a big part of what Johnson must now do is quickly build those relationships to ensure that Baton Rouge is still a desirable place to be.

Because of Johnson's great recruiting history, it didn't take long for him to make an impact as one of the top infielders in the class, Mikey Romero, immediately flipped his pledge from Arizona to LSU. Kendall Rogers of D1 Baseball reported this week that Arizona second team All-American Jacob Berry entered the transfer portal and is likely to join Johnson at LSU.

Berry is coming off a season where he batted .352 with 17 home runs and 70 RBI for the Wildcats and would without a doubt bring an offensive punch to this group. Romero is still waiting to see where he falls in the July 11 draft but the fact that players are wanting to play for Johnson more than the school is a positive sign about the way he connects with high school recruits.

"I do invest in the players and I do invest in the relationships and I invest in their process to be good," Johnson said. "I want to be fair. I want to give players an opportunity to figure out what is the best opportunity for them. There's been a lot of communication, figuring out scholarships, roster, all of those types of things. I've spent a lot of time in doing that."

These decisions will come together in the next few weeks as Johnson continues to familiarize himself with the roster, the recruiting class and filling out a coaching staff. But the fast start that Johnson is already off to should have LSU fans extremely encouraged about the future of the program.

Photo courtesy of LSUsports.