Jay Johnson is the new head coach of LSU baseball, but what will the rest of the staff look like as the team embarks on a new era?
Tigers fans -- and players -- won't have to wait too long to hear those answers, Johnson said Thursday on SportsTalk with Bobby Hebert and Kristian Garic.
"We’re within days, I think," Johnson said. "I’ve had a couple candidates in and had some great interviews and great interactions. There’ll be some tough decisions, in a good way."
Johnson hasn't identified any candidates, but he did describe the profile of the coach he's looking for as he takes over in Baton Rouge. The former Arizona Wildcats head coach was officially introduced on Monday.
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"There’s a lot of quality coaches that want to contribute to this baseball program and its tradition and its legacy and are in it for the right reasons, that are highly competent at being great recruiters and great developers and great people for our players to be around," Johnson said. "And I think eventually, as I sort through it and get a staff that meshes in ability and chemistry, it’s going to put us in a really good spot and it’s been fun to kind of work through that.”
The new LSU coach made clear one more aspect about his staff: One of his assistants will be the recruiting coordinator. The Tigers' previous assistant coach in that position, Nolan Cain, took a job at Texas A&M earlier this month. While Johnson says he views recruiting as one of his strengths and plans to be heavily involved, he'll lean on an assistant to be on the front lines of that endeavor. Johnson also said he's leaning toward coaching from the dugout, but that decision will ultimately be based on the staffing.
’[The recruiting coordinator] will be somebody that is a worker, grinder, a guy that players want to come play for," Johnson said. :Because a lot of times they’re on the front lines of building relationships."
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