LSU Baseball to Hire Jay Johnson as Next Leader of Program
The LSU baseball coaching position is vacant no longer. On Thursday, D1 Baseball's Kendall Rogers reported the program will hire Arizona's Jay Johnson as its successor to Paul Mainieri.
Johnson's name surfaced right around the time teams were departing for Omaha for the College World Series as a number of prominent coaches like Vanderbilt's Tim Corbin and Tennessee's Tony Vitello were also mentioned as potential candidates. But in the end it was the six year coach for the Wildcats who Scott Woodward and the administration settled on.
At 44 years old, Johnson is a relatively young head coach who's had positive impacts at all of the of the programs he's been a part of. He turned the Nevada program around in two years and has done the same with Arizona over the last six years, leading them to a College World Series runner up in his first season as coach back in 2016.
Of course taking over the head coaching duties at LSU, there is a Omaha or bust mentality with those who follow the program. It's something that Mainieri talked about in his closing press conference after the most recent loss to Tennessee. Upon returning from Knoxville, Mainieri told reporters that the administration had actually approached him about coaching suggestions but he didn't reveal the names he provided.
"There's a lot expected of you," Mainieri said. "It's an awesome fanbase and a lot of people that love LSU baseball. Have a lot of resources, a great administration but you have to be confident in yourself and you can't listen to the criticism too much. You have to stick by what you believe and do it your way."
Johnson will also inherit a young core of Dylan Crews, Tre Morgan, Cade Doughty, Javen Coleman and Garrett Edwards but will have some work to do in replacing a number of veteran pitchers and position players from the 2021 roster. Landon Marceaux, Jaden Hill, AJ Labas, Gavin Dugas, Ma'Khail Hilliard and Devin Fontenot are all likely to go pro or are already graduated seniors who played major roles during the 2021 season.
Former LSU great, Todd Walker, expressed an interest in becoming LSU's hitting coach on the Tim Fletcher Show before the Johnson hire was reported. Bringing an assistant coaching staff to Baton Rouge will be among the immediate steps Johnson will tend to.
Hitting the transfer portal for veteran arms and bringing in a strong recruiting class are vitally important to seeing this team get back to contention. The nucleus is there but sanding out the edges is what will need to be the focus for Johnson in roster management.
More details will be provided throughout the next few days.