LSU baseball's new coach has a lot on his plate as he takes over for Paul Mainieri. One item at the top: Keep around the players already in Baton Rouge.
Jay Johnson spoke to a variety of topics Thursday on SportsTalk with Bobby Hebert and Kristian Garic, including his goal of retaining the Tigers' MLB-caliber players who might not yet be top pro prospects.
"I’ve been communicating with those guys a lot, and if we can keep them around here it gives us a chance to be a little older, a little more experience. And I like that," Johnson said. "And I like the thought of having older players that can really, really do a good job using their experience, helping us bring the young guys along at a good pace to put the right team together."
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Junior Gavin Dugas was one name mentioned in that category. The left fielder led the Tigers with 19 home runs during the 2021 season, and spurred the offense as much as anyone during a clutch run of wins to take the Eugene Regional title. The Tigers have already seen one player enter the NCAA transfer portal in Zach Arnold, though Johnson said he's not allowed to discuss any potential incoming transfers. His former Arizona squad has reportedly seen an astounding 14 players enter the transfer portal.
Of the players on the current LSU roster, Johnson noted rising sophomores Dylan Crews and Tre' Morgan as players he's spent significant time speaking with, along with the incoming recruiting class established under Mainieri and former recruiting coordinator Nolan Cain.
"I think our success this year is going to be about the returning players improving," Johnson said, "and that’s what we’re going to go to work on.”
Tigers fans will hope Johnson can repeat the success from his debut season at Arizona in 2016. Johnson took over for Andy Lopez, who had been in the post for 14 years, and led the Wildcats to a record of 49-23 and all the way to the championship of the College World Series. His team fell to the same Coastal Carolina group that upset LSU in the Super Regional. The Wildcats returned to Omaha this past season but fell in two games after defeating Ole Miss in the Super Regionals.
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Johnson inherits a similarly talented group at LSU, which includes the No. 4-ranked recruiting class, according to PerfectGame.org. Another task for Johnson will be assembling a coaching staff, which he said Thursday he expects to have complete "within days." One of those assistants will be a recruiting coordinator, though he expects to be heavily involved in that process as well.
"A lot on the table right now, a lot on the plate," Johnson said. "So you eat it one bite at a time, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do."
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MORE FROM JAY JOHNSON:
WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS AN OFFENSIVE-MINDED COACH?
“There’s no question about that. I think it’s kind of how I was brought up as an assistant head coach, associate head coach, that that was my area of the team. You know how it is, as a competitor, you want your area of the team to be the best area of the team. So I’ve worked really hard on that over several years to try to put our teams in position to be very difficult to pitch against, very difficult to play against regardless of the personnel. We’re going to play a style that is incredibly disruptive. And we [Arizona] really hit a sweet spot the last couple years. I mean, in 2019 and 2021, the two full seasons that we’ve played, we’re upward of 9 or more runs a game. That’s really hard to do. That’s like scoring a touchdown every drive you get in football. So, there’s a lot to it, we’re going to put that work in here and I’m excited to put that work in with the talent that we have and I think Tigers fans are going to be excited about the product.”
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THOUGHTS ON CURRENT LSU ROSTER
“I think their talent is easy to see, and as I accepted the job and got a little bit of time to watch some video from the season — there’s a program that makes it very easy for us to access basically every pitch that was thrown during the college baseball season — the talent is easy to see. In Dylan’s case, I think his desire for us to be an elite team in college baseball and work to get back to Omaha and all of those kind of things is exactly what you want in one of your guys that’s probably one of your best players. Tre’ is a great communicator. I’ve enjoyed being on the phone with him a couple times. He’s working through rehabbing a small injury right now and we’re excited for him to do that, and be ready to go once we get going in the fall.”
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HOW DID MEDIA ATTENTION IN ARIZONA COMPARE TO LSU?
"For the Pac-12 I felt we were actually the most covered, most followed, highest interest team out there. I was well aware of that here. It was honestly pretty exciting walking into the media deal the other day, just seeing how many people in the state and Baton Rouge care about the Tigers makes me really honored to be a part of it.
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ANY 'WELCOME TO BATON ROUGE' FAN MOMENTS THUS FAR?
“Yea. Everybody has been great. It’s been amazing. I did go to lunch today with a recruit. And I looked around and about four times I caught people staring over at us, which I was like ‘man, come over here and tell this guy this is the best place in the world to play college baseball.’ Yea, I’m so excited about that. I think it just adds to this being LSU and being one of the best places in the country for any player, any elite player, to come play college baseball, have a chance to live out your dream of developing yourself in a place to become a major league player and win, and win at a high level. And all of those things are very exciting. And the fans and the support and the interest in the program are a really, really big part of that.”
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WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR FREE TIME?
“I love country music, hands-down, that’s an easy one. I love college football. When we’re wrapped up in the fall, like, had our practice done for the day and there’s a good ballgame on, I love watching that. Other than that I’m pretty low-key. Usually it’s resting so the engine can be charged for doing what we need to do to get the Tigers where we want them to go.”