The staff for LSU baseball's new head coach Jay Johnson has added its first name in the form of ex-Arizona State pitching coach Jason Kelly.
The hire was first reported by D1Baseball, and had not yet been officially announced by LSU as of 4 p.m on Tuesday.
Kelly had spent the past two seasons as Arizona State's pitching coach, and was on track to be kept on in that position with the added responsibility of recruiting coordinator, but the two sides abruptly parted ways last week as Kelly interviewed for the job at LSU, according to a report from AZCentral.com.
Johnson, the former Arizona head coach, said he was already familiar with his new pitching coach, having competed against Kelly as the Sun Devils' pitching coach and previously as the associate head coach and pitching coach at the University of Washington.
"I think he’s very complete," Johnson said. "He has a complete skill set of what’s required to be a Division-1 pitching coach."
Sun Devils pitchers posted a 5.28 ERA and 33-22 record as a staff. The team won its opening game at the Austin Regional of the NCAA Tournament, but fell in its next two and was eliminated. Kelly was also named the assistant coach of the year in 2018, his final season with the Huskies, while helping lead Washington to the College World Series.
Johnson said in an interview last week that one of his assistants would serve as recruiting coordinator. Kelly will not be tasked with that responsibility, though he's expected to be "heavily involved" in recruiting, Johnson said, as will the rest of the staff.
"He's a very good relationship-builder," Johnson said.
He described the new LSU pitching coach as especially talented in terms of developing young pitchers, especially when it comes to arm strength. The pitching coach is a hire that could hold particular important for Johnson, who is self-professed to be an offensive-minded head coach.
With a hitting coach hire still looming, Johnson said he's been "very deliberate" in how he's gone about establishing the pool of candidates for his staffing hires, for which he's interviewed in the range of 10 candidates.
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’[The recruiting coordinator] will be somebody that is a worker, grinder, a guy that players want to come play for," Johnson said in an interview on SportsTalk last week. "Because a lot of times they’re on the front lines of building relationships."
Check back for updates.
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Follow Jeff Nowak on Twitter @Jeff_Nowak or contact him by email at jeffrey.nowak@audacy.com
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