LSU hires Arizona baseball coach Jay Johnson to succeed the legendary Paul Mainieri

LSU baseball has found a replacement for retiring Hall of Fame coach Paul Mainieri, hiring Arizona’s Jay Johnson to lead the Tigers going forward.

A new era of LSU baseball is about to begin.

After weeks of searching, the Tigers have identified their new head coach, according to a report from D1Baseball.com. Arizona’s Jay Johnson is the guy.

Johnson will look to continue the success of Paul Mainieri, who announced his retirement in May after 15 years with LSU. In that time, he won a College World Series, four SEC titles, six SEC tournaments and numerous Coach of the Year awards.

Jay Johnson will face pressure to get LSU baseball back to the CWS

In Johnson, the Tigers hope they’ve landed a coach capable of making waves in the CWS with impressive offensive chops.

Johnson made a name for himself in coaching with Arizona, where he’s gone 208-114 over six seasons.

When he took over the program in 2016, he immediately took them to the CWS, their first appearance since 2012. It was quite a debut too, as they made it all the way to the final, falling to Coastal Carolina.

The Wildcats made it to the CWS again in 2021. This season they won the Pac-12.

Before Arizona, Johnson was the head coach at Nevada, where he won the Mountain West title in his second season. That achievement earned him the job in Tucson.

Johnson is known for his ability to get an offense going. Arizona was No. 3 in hits and No. 4 in batting average this season. When they went on that College World Series run in 2016, the team ranked fifth in hits.

LSU hasn’t made it to the CWS since 2017 when they were runners-up.

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