LSU baseball now knows the name that will succeed the Paul Mainieri era: Jay Johnson.
The Arizona head coach will leave the Wildcats to take over the reins for the Tigers, sources confirmed to WWL Radio Thursday afternoon.
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But who exactly is Jay Johnson? Here are five things to know.
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1. HAILING FROM...
Johnson, 44, is an Oroville, California native and began his playing career in 1996 at nearby Shasta College. After two seasons he transferred to Point Loma Nazarene where he started at second base. That’s also where Johnson began his coaching career as an assistant in 2001, before being promoted to the head coach in 2005.
The next season Johnson departed to become an assistant coach at the University of San Diego, helping to lead the Toreros to three West Coast Conference championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances from 2006-’13.
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2. SHORT CAREER, BIG RESULTS
Johnson’s head coaching career isn’t nearly as extensive as some of the other targets in LSU’s coaching search, but his top-end accolades are among the best. His head coaching career began at the University of Nevada in 2014, finishing with a record of 72-42, and Mountain West Coach of the Year honors in 2015.
He departed to Arizona the next season, producing immediate results. The Wildcats went 49-24 in Johnson's his debut season, with their run reaching all the way to final game at the College World Series. That ended in a loss, however, to the same Coastal Carolina squad that upset LSU in the Super Regionals earlier that season. Johnson again led the Wildcats to Omaha this past season, defeating Ole Miss and fellow LSU target Mike Bianco in the Super Regionals. Arizona fell with a whimper in two games, but that didn’t scare off the Tigers from hiring the Pac-12’s coach of the year to replace Paul Mainieri.
In all Johnson has a head coaching record of 316-172, along with a postseason record of 17-7. What that postseason record doesn’t reflect, however, are the two seasons prior to the canceled 2020 college baseball season in which the Wildcats scuffled to a record of 66-46 (29-30 in Pac-12 play) and missed the postseason both years.
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3. TOP DOLLAR
It remains unclear how much money LSU agreed to send Johnson’s way to depart Arizona, but it’s likely he didn’t come cheap. Johnson was the second-highest paid coach at the College World Series this season.
Johnson’s salary for the 2021 season was reported at $856,687 — a number cut by 20% due to COVID — that was second only to the $1.2 million Vanderbilt paid to head coach Tim Corbin, according to The Tennessean Johnson had two years remaining on his current deal with Arizona after signing an extension in 2018, his second in as many seasons. He’ll owe just over $1 million back to the program for leaving early, according to a report from The Arizona Daily Star. Johnson's contract also included language that blocked him from leaving for another Pac-12 program.
The other coaches, all of whom took some form of COVID reduction for this year’s compensation:
- Brian O’Connor, Virginia: $765,530
- Chris Lemonis, Miss. State: $750,000
- David Pierce, Texas: $731,250
- Tony Vitello, Tennessee: $550,000
- Elliott Avent, N.C. State: $434,833
- David Esquer, Stanford: n/a (private school/salary info not publicly reported)
Despite that big number for Johnson, it’s unlikely to have scared off LSU. The now-retired Mainieri was one of just a handful of NCAA baseball coaches to paid at north of $1 million in salary per season.
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4. ABOUT THE RECRUITS
It’s no secret that there are recruiting advantages inherent to coaching in the Southeastern Conference, but it will be on Johnson to deliver on the recruiting trail. That said, he’s had an impressive run of recruiting classes since taking over in Tuscon, with his highest-rated class, according to PerfectGame.org this past year at No. 8 and behind only Stanford in the Pac-12. The current crop of commitments to Arizona is ranked 23rd, but it will remain to be seen if school choices shift for the incoming Wildcats players.
The same could be said for LSU, which currently has the 4th-ranked recruiting class in line for next season with other SEC programs (Florida, Vanderbilt and Arkansas) ranking 1, 2 and 3. See the breakdown of those rankings below.
ARIZONA RECRUITING CLASSES (beginning with Johnson’s 2nd season)
- 2017: 30th; top-100 recruits: 0
- 2018: 9th; top-100 recruits: 1
- 2019: 21st; top-100 recruits: 2
- 2020: 8th; top-100 recruits: 2
- 2021: 23rd; top-100 recruits: 2
LSU OVER SAME SPAN
- 2017: 16th; top-100 recruits: 2
- 2018: 3rd; top-100 recruits: 4
- 2019: 7th; top-100 recruits: 3
- 2020: 2nd; top-100 recruits: 4
- 2021: 4th; top-100 recruits: 6
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5. A TRAGIC KOBE CONNECTION
A tragic helicopter crash in 2020 sent shockwaves across the nation with the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna. But it was another name that hit Johnson the hardest: John Altobelli.
The veteran baseball coach, his wife and 14-year-old daughter were among those killed when the helicopter went down. Johnson and Altobelli were personal friends, and LSU’s new coach talked about the pair’s connection with the media in the days following the crash, which dated back to his own personal recruiting trail.
"I was 24 years old and just getting started in coaching. I went up for some recruiting,” Johnson said in a report from KVOA.com. “This coach, I was nobody at the time, treated me like I was somebody and that stuck with me.”
Seven passengers and the pilot died in the crash in Calabasas.
“He was a great guy, great friend,” Johnson said at the time, "and there's a lot of coaches across college baseball that are devastated by this."