Buy In Throughout LSU Baseball Program in Great Place Ahead of 2022 Season
It doesn't matter the sport, the roster or even the expectations. Every team needs to build a strong foundation and culture.
At LSU, we've seen it with Will Wade and Kim Mulkey with the basketball programs, Beth Torina with softball, Jay Clark with gymnastics. It's the primary goal that new football coach Brian Kelly wants to instill in the program and is what's starting to build with Jay Johnson and the baseball program.
Listening to Johnson talk for even five minutes and it's easy to tell the goals he has in place for this program in year one. But everything has a process and one of the most popular points of emphasis he's established in his short time as coach is the importance of preparation and execution in everything his players do.
"The work is being put in to create a brand of baseball and a program everybody in the state can be proud of," Johnson said. "Having the right type of culture and way of doing things, the results will take care of themselves. My expectation is maximum effort towards preparing and execution. My goal is that when you come watch us play here, people can point to it and that's what a baseball team looks like."
Johnson is all about the preparation being perfect and the results will usually take care of themselves as a result. He laid out three "phases" this group will look to address heading into the 2022 season which are:
No. 1- Creating an identity or as Johnson calls it a "process of winning"
No. 2- Mastering the Fundamentals
No. 3- Becoming a more connected team
All three phases are incredibly important to building the kind of team LSU hopes to be in 2022. Whether it's watching as guys come in late at night to get in extra hitting or catch fly balls, Johnson and his staff are really leaving a mark with the players through their every day work ethic.
"When you're building a new program, each step is incredibly important. This is our players first crack with us," Johnson said. "We've made the most of our time and now we need to get to scrimmaging in preparing for the next step.
"Right now there's a lot of excitement on the season and naturally so. I think we'll focus on the self discipline piece of it for them and that's about improving and preparing. We're gonna have to stay committed to those things to be in the best position to be successful."
The difference the players are noticing with this staff and the mentality they're approaching every day with is rubbing off with confidence and improvements in their games.
Johnson has spoken incredibly highly about infielder Cade Doughty, who returns as one of the all around stars on this team that hardly anyone is talking about. Doughty worked this offseason on minor mechanical improvements in his swing while also further developing as an infielder.
"It's really easy to play for coaches like we have," Doughty said. "They bring the energy, they have the knowledge and it's really awesome to have them on our side because the motivation they give us, I'm really blessed to be able to play for them."
Outfielder Dylan Crews enters 2022 as one of the premier players in all of college baseball. The impact this new regime has had on Crews is profound with Johnson comparing him to Alex Bregman in the way he prepares and trains.
Much like Bregman back in his LSU playing days, there are very few nights where Crews doesn't go to the training facility to get some extra swings in.
"It's a new era and we're in great hands right now," outfielder Dylan Crews said. "Their preparation is unbelievable every single day and we're gonna trust that. His enthusiasm he brings to the field, he doesn't change one bit. He's not a guy that's gonna yell at you, he's gonna bring you in, tell you what you did wrong and send you back out there."
Building that culture started with the buy in from the players, which has been apparent to Johnson from the moment he stepped foot on campus. The next steps are finding the right lineup and pitching combinations while also growing even more connected as a team.