Jay Johnson explains how LSU can raise the bar coming off of national championship

LSU reached the pinnacle of college baseball this past summer, celebrating a national championship in Omaha after taking down Florida. Jay Johnson was brought to Baton Rouge to win another title and in Year 2, he delivered in a big way. The Tigers entered the 2023 season as favorites and lived up to the expectations.

But now, the calendar reads 2024 and a new LSU team is in front of us. Repeating is thought to be harder than winning the first one, with a new level of expectation placed on the program. Johnson understands LSU likely cannot match the overall results of last season’s team but knows there are new challenges ahead of them.

“In terms of results, it’s hard to do much better than that team did,” Johnson said. “I think attacking different challenges and what I would call our presence of winning and constantly improving that. College baseball and college athletics is kind of under construction as we know it but if I look at how we operate at the highest possible what, what improvements can we make in doing that?”

LSU finished the year 54-17 and lost just twice throughout the NCAA Tournament. The Baton Rouge Regional proved to be a breeze before sweeping Kentucky in the Super Regional. Once in Omaha, Johnson’s team did face elimination twice but responded with resounding wins — one of which was the clincher to win it all.

If Johnson had decided to run things back while making no additions, he understands LSU would not likely have a ton of success in 2024. One of the examples he gave of improving the program was bringing in Jeremy McMillan as a new strength coach, hoping he can elevate the team.

“We were able to go get Jeremy McMillian, who I believe is the best strength coach in college baseball,” Johnson said. “Just in a month’s time from when we were done with them in the fall until players returned in January, players were stronger, they’re moving better, and more functional in baseball.”

LSU will kick its title defense off on Feb. 16 against VMI. A huge matchup against Texas will take place in Houston on March 1 and before you can blink, SEC play will be happening in the middle of March.

Getting back to Omaha is going to be a tough task for the Tigers but Johnson certainly feels like this offseason has seen enough moves to elevate his program.