Tag: Jay Johnson

A quick look ahead to the LSU Tigers 2022 baseball season

We aren’t far away from the beginning of baseball season.

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We are just a couple of weeks away from the start of what looks to be another exciting Baseball Season at “The Box”.

Not only is it the start of a new season, but also a start of a new regime at LSU. On June 25th, 2021, the Tigers hired Jay Johnson to be the new skipper for the Tigers baseball program. Coach Johnson coached at Arizona last year where he was the Pac-12 coach of the year. He led the Wildcats to the Pac-12 championship and eventually to the College World Series.

His Wildcats had the nation’s best offense in 2021. Oh yeah, did I mention he brought his best player with him? Jacob Berry was the hottest hitter for the No. 1 offense in the country, batting .352 with 17 homers and 70 RBIs. This is why he was placed on Baseball America’s Preseason All-American team for the 2022 season. He wasn’t the only Tiger on that list.

Berry was joined by Dylan Crews, Cade Doughty, and Tre’ Morgan. All four of these Sophomores are part of the reason why there is so much excitement around the program this year. Many truly believe this is a team that could win it all.

LSU begins the 2022 season ranked No. 10 on Baseball America’s Top 25. They will ease into the season with Maine, at Louisiana Tech, Southern, Towson, and New Orleans before things ramp up in the Shriners Hospital for Children College Classic where the Tigers will take on the likes of Oklahoma, No. 1 Texas, and Baylor at Minute Maid Park.

LSU baseball ranked in fourth preseason poll

Another preseason poll, another top 10 ranking

We are less than a month away from the beginning of the 2022 college baseball season and the LSU Tigers are among the top 10 teams in the country.

New baseball head coach Jay Johnson is preparing to lead this team back to Omaha and the College World Series. Last season their dream was cut short by the Tennessee Volunteers in the Super Regional.

After signing the No. 1 recruiting class in 2022, the Tigers are ready to defend their turf and make another run at a national championship. LSU hasn’t returned to the CWS since 2017. Johnson led the Arizona Wildcats to Omaha last year.

Per the LSU Tigers’ release:

LSU is ranked No. 10 in the 2022 Baseball America preseason Top 25, marking the Tigers’ fourth Top 10 appearance in a preseason poll.

LSU’s previously released preseason rankings are No. 3 by Collegiate Baseball, No. 4 by Perfect Game, and No. 8 by D1 Baseball.

The Tigers are engaged in groups workouts and conditioning drills, and LSU’s first official team practice is scheduled for Friday afternoon. The 2022 season begins on February 18, when LSU plays host to Maine in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.

Rank Team
1 Texas Longhorns
2 Vanderbilt Commodores
3 Mississippi State Bulldogs
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
5 Virginia Cavaliers
6 Florida Gators
7 Stanford Cardinal
8 Arkansas Razorbacks
9 Mississippi Rebels
10 LSU Tigers
11 Oregon State Beavers
12 Florida State Seminoles
13 Arizona Wildcats
14 Georgia Bulldogs
15 East Carolina Pirates
16 North Carolina State Wolfpack
17 Tennessee Volunteers
18 UC Irvine Anteaters
19 Oklahoma State Cowboys
20 Nebraska Cornhuskers
21 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
22 UCLA Bruins
23 Texas Tech Red Raiders
24 Old Dominion Monarchs
25 Miami Hurricanes

 

Michigan State football hires new offensive analyst/assistant RBs coach

MSU has hired a new offensive analyst/assistant RB coach

Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker has filled a void within his coaching staff. Blaine Gautier has been hired as Michigan State’s new offensive analyst and assistant running backs coach, a void left by Effrem Reed’s promotion to RBs coach from this role.

Gautier spent his college career as a quarterback at Louisiana from 2008-2012 playing alongside Effrem Reed under offensive coordinator Jay Johnson. Gautier has a lot of connections with the Michigan State staff.

After his collegiate playing career, Gautier got into the coaching ranks working as an offensive analyst at LSU and then taking a job as a WR coach at McNeese State before coming to East Lansing.

Gautier should give the Spartans a recruiting boost in Louisiana while having strong comradery with the offensive coaching staff at Michigan State.

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Michigan State football OC Jay Johnson nominated for Broyles Award

Michigan State football OC Jay Johnson nominated for Broyles Award

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The Broyles Award is given each year to the top assistant in college football. Due to the Spartans surprisingly explosive offense this season, Michigan State football offensive coordinator Jay Johnson has been nominated for the honor.

Last year’s winner was Steve Sarkisian, who was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Alabama at the time he won.

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LSU and UL-Lafayette to face off on Sunday in a fall baseball scrimmage

LSU and UL-Lafayette will face off in a fall baseball scrimmage on Sunday.

The LSU Baseball team will face UL-Lafayette on Sunday in a Fall baseball scrimmage.

According to the press release from the LSU athletic department, the first pitch comes at 12:00 p.m. CT. Gates will open at 11:00 a.m. and parking will be free. The fall baseball practice schedule will continue through Nov. 21. The game on Sunday will feature 16 innings with a 30-minute break between the 8th and 9th innings.

“Team practice has been progressing very well,” said LSU first-year coach Jay Johnson. “We really appreciate the fans coming out last Sunday; that was really impressive, and we’re looking forward to seeing them again this weekend. We’ll have one more week of fall practice after this weekend, so we’re looking to finish strong.

“The development of our pitching has been really encouraging; we walked two batters in 20 innings against UNO, and that’s a significant positive development. Limiting the free bases from the mound has been impressive, and I think we made two errors in 20 innings last weekend. I thought we handled the baseball really well, and when you’re limiting opportunities for the opponent like that, it’s really hard for them to score.”

The 2022 LSU baseball season begins on Feb. 18 when the Tigers host Maine.

LSU baseball schedule announced for the 2022 season

LSU released the schedule for baseball on Wednesday.

On Wednesday the baseball schedule for the LSU Tigers was announced for the upcoming season.

The LSU baseball season will start against Maine on Feb. 18-20 for a three-game series at home. This will be the first game under new LSU head coach Jay Johnson, who comes over from Arizona. The Tigers will take place in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Classic at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas, in early March.

During the three-game stretch, they will face future SEC opponents Oklahoma and Texas in back-to-back games. The team will close out the classic with a game against Baylor. The first SEC games will start on Mar. 18-20 when the Texas A&M Aggies come to Baton Rouge.

A full look at the 2022 LSU Tigers baseball schedule:

February Games:

18-20 Maine Home
23 Louisiana Tech Away
25 Towson Home
26 Southern Home
27 Towson Home (Game 1 of DH)
27 Southern Home (Game 2 of DH)

March Games:

2 New Orleans Home
4 Oklahoma Houston, Texas
5 Texas Houston, Texas
6 Baylor Houston, Texas
8 McNeese Home
11-13 Bethune-Cookman Home
15 Tulane Home
18-20 Texas A&M Home
22 Louisiana Tech Home
25-27 Florida Away
29 UL-Monroe Home

April Games:

1-3 Auburn Home
5 Grambling Home
8-10 Mississippi State Away
12 Lamar Home
14-16 Arkansas Away
19 ULL Home
22-24 Missour Home
26 TBA Home
29-30 Georgia Home

May Games:

1 Georgia Home
3 Nicholls Home
6-8 Alabama Away
10 Southeastern Louisiana Home
13-15 Ole Miss Home
17 Northwestern State Home
19-21 Vanderbilt Away
24-29 SEC Tournament Hoover, Alabama

 

Michigan State football: QB situation still not settled

Michigan State’s QB battle is neck and neck

It is no secret that Michigan State has a huge quarterback competition going on as fall camp is in full swing. Graduate transfer Anthony Russo and redshirt sophomore Payton Thorne are squaring off to be the Spartans starting QB.

MSU held their first in house scrimmage this past Saturday, where reports said that both quarterbacks played well.

It seems to be a neck and neck race for the starting gig, and both guys are making a case to win the job.

Offensive coordinator Jay Johnson talked about how close of a race it has been, and how the staff hasn’t ruled out using two quarterbacks to start the season.

In a perfect world, someone will set themselves apart by the time the Northwestern opener rolls around.

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Oregon baseball signs Mark Wasikowski to contract extension

A source has confirmed to Ducks Wire that Oregon is giving baseball coach Mark Wasikowski a contract extension. Length or terms are yet to be disclosed.

Not only is it the right thing to do, but it’s the smart thing to do as well.

A source has confirmed to DucksWire that Oregon Ducks baseball coach Mark Wasikowski’s contract has been extended, but the length and terms of the new contract were not disclosed.

When Wasikowski was hired at the end of the 2019 season, the Ducks were barely mediocre, and in just two seasons, Oregon hosted an NCAA Regional and was oh so close to moving on to a Super Regional. It would have been the Ducks’ first Super Regional since 2013.

In 2019, Oregon fell to 27-29 overall and 10-19 in conference play. It was the Ducks’ fourth straight year without going to the post-season and the program wasn’t trending in the right direction. That was when Oregon decided not to renew George Horton’s contract and go in a different direction.

It didn’t take the Ducks long to find their guy as Wasikowski was hired three weeks after the 2019 season ended.

After just three seasons at the helm of Purdue’s baseball program, the former Oregon assistant turned the Boilermakers completely around and he did the exact same thing with the Ducks.

Wasikowski led Purdue to a 39-win season in 2018, leading the Boilermakers to just the third NCAA Regional appearance in school history and only the second since 1982. The Boilermakers finished second in the Big Ten regular-season while finishing as the conference tournament runner-up.

During his first season at Purdue, Wasikowski led the Boilermakers to 29 wins, a 19-win improvement from the 10-44 campaign the team had the year before his arrival.

At Oregon, Wasikowski’s team improved right away and it looked like they were going to have a nice season, but the 2020 pandemic hit, and the Ducks finished the year after only 15 games played. That improvement showed itself in a big way in 2021 as Oregon was just one game from winning its first conference title since the program’s resurrection in 2009.

The Ducks finished the regular season 39-16 and 20-10 in Pac-12 action. They featured the conference Player of the Year in Aaron Zavala and his fellow All-Americans Robert Ahlstrom and Gabe Matthews.

Wasikowski missed out on being named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year as that award went to Arizona’s Jay Johnson, who later left the Wildcats to go coach at LSU.

Along with his immediate success, Oregon didn’t want to see Wasikowski do something similar as Johnson, so the Ducks thought it would be prudent to extend his contract for another five seasons.

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Report: LSU baseball to hire Arizona coach Jay Johnson

Jay Johnson will reportedly be LSU baseball’s next coach.

LSU baseball has reportedly found its next baseball coach after Paul Mainieri officially retired at the end of the postseason.

The next man to take the reins of the Tigers’ program will reportedly be Arizona Wildcats coach Jay Johnson, according to Kendall Rogers of D1 Baseball.

Johnson is just now coming off his second College World Series trip with Arizona. He and Wildcats came within just one victory of a National Championship in 2016, so it’s clear he has a winning foundation he can expand upon when he touches down in Baton Rouge.

Putting together one of the best teams offensively speaking in all of college baseball, Johnson led the team to its first conference title since 1992.

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He inherits the same fan base that surrounded Mainieri — and the expectations will be high per the usual.

“There’s a lot expected of you,” Mainieri told reporters before his time with the Tigers came to an end. “It’s an awesome fanbase and a lot of people that love LSU baseball. Have a lot of resources, a great administration but you have to be confident in yourself and you can’t listen to the criticism too much. You have to stick by what you believe and do it your way.”

Can Johnson lead LSU back to Omaha and take the Tigers all the way sooner rather than later?

It will be something to keep a watchful eye on.

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Notre Dame coach Link Jarrett among finalists for LSU job

Could Jarrett be on his way out already?

Notre Dame soon could join the ranks of programs that have lost their coach after a pleasantly surprising season. Link Jarrett reportedly is one of three names in the final running for the coaching vacancy at LSU. A source says Jarrett recently interviewed for the job. Also in the running to replace the retired Paul Mainieri are Arizona’s Jay Johnson and East Carolina’s Cliff Godwin.

Notre Dame’s 2021 season was its best in years thanks largely to Jarrett’s leadership. The Irish made it to the super regionals and came within a win against Mississippi State of advancing to the College World Series. They finished with a 34-13 overall record, clinching the ACC Atlantic Division along the way. For his efforts, Jarrett was named the ACC Coach of the Year.

While losing Jarrett after only two seasons would be tough for Notre Dame, it’s difficult to say no to following in the footsteps of an accomplished coach like Mainieri. Somehow, the Irish would carry on without him, difficult as it may seem. Such is the case in college athletics.