After Paul Mainieri closes out a 15-year coaching career with 1,324 wins at LSU, the Tigers are given the difficult task of finding someone who can continue the legendary program that Mainieri and former coach Skip Bertman devoted their lives to making.
On Friday, LSU announced that the 2021 Pac-12 Baseball Coach of the Year was the man for the job. After working tirelessly in a coaching position since 2002 at the age of 24, California native Jay Johnson has been named the 26th head coach of LSU Baseball and is set to succeed Mainieri who recently retired after 2021.
“I wanted to hire someone who was ready, ready for this moment, ready for the expectations, ready to win championships,” LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward said during Monday’s press conference. “And there is nobody in the world who is more ready for this job than Jay Johnson because he’s been preparing for this moment for his entire life.”
Former Arizona coach Johnson commented that his whole life has led up to this moment from when he bought Bertman’s videotape titled ‘How to Win the Big One’ and the time he heard Mainieri’s inspirational speech at the San Diego baseball convention.
“When I think about the 44 years of my entire life, I really believe every day has led me to this podium right now, to this program, and it’s beyond a dream come true,” Johnson said, now standing behind a podium in Alex Box Stadium. “That’s why I call this the honor of my lifetime….to be entrusted with a program that Coach Bertman built and that Coach Mainieri carried on.”
Johnson’s name began to ring out across the nation in 2016 when he became the fifth coach in history to lead a team to the finals of the College World Series during his debut season. He took a team who lost nearly double the amount of games they won in the previous two seasons and turned them into a powerhouse who led the conference in hits, runs, doubles, walks and stolen bases.
During his five-year stretch with the Arizona Wildcats, the coach finished first in the conference in runs and hits in four of those seasons while topping the league in slugging percentage, runs per game, batting average and on-base percentage in three seasons.
The coach’s offense led every Power 5 team during the 2019 season. He finished nationally at No. 2 in slugging percentage, runs per game, and on base percentage in addition to finishing third in total runs and batting average. During his last season at Arizona, the Wildcats led the nation in hits, runs and slugging percentage on their path to Omaha while topping the Pac-12 conference in runs, hits, RBIs, doubles, triples, batting average, slugging percentage, total bases and walks.
“I can’t wait to get started and to be in the locker room and look them in the eyes and talk about the expectations,” Johnson spoke to fans. “Not of winning but what it takes to win–because you guys will be here on a Friday night on a one-run game and we’re going to find a way to win that game, but that game will be on the practice field, in the weight room, in team meetings, by doing the right thing on a daily basis, and the improvement will come out and put us on top of a 4-3 game.”
LSU’s next head coach appeared well-prepared to take on the challenge of leading LSU baseball’s ‘next generation of National Champions’ and devoting the remainder of his career to the program that made Skip Bertman and Paul Mainieri legendary baseball coaches.
“I get asked all the time, ‘how are you going to do it?’ Okay, it’s LSU. Expectations, all of those types of things. That’s why I came here. You stare challenges in the face and you go do it,” Johnson said. “I couldn’t be more excited to be here.
“This state, this university is going to get everything that I’ve got.”
