Jay Johnson reveals how he changed recruiting approach once LSU reached Omaha in 2025

Jay Johnson and his LSU program won its second National Championship in three years this season, downing Coastal Carolina in back-to-back games to take the 2025 Men’s College World Series.

The advantage in making it to Omaha is certainly great, as your season-long quest to be among the final eight teams in the sport has paid off. However, it will set you back in dealing with the Transfer Portal. The college baseball portal opens on June 2, right in the middle of NCAA Tournament Regional play.

Because of this, the teams that are still playing are at a bit of a disadvantage to teams who are no longer playing, hence having more time to recruit players. Johnson discussed this disadvantage on “Mik’d Up w/ Mikie Mahtook and Jared Mitchell” this week.

“I don’t know if there’s a better way to do it because when you get to Omaha, there’s only eight teams playing and there’s 292 teams recruiting,” Johnson said. “It is what it is. The best kind of problems. I will say I made a conscientious effort that this time around there was no divided mind for me. I called a few players and said ‘hey look, if you can’t wait by all means move along,’ but watch the game tonight and tell me if you think this is the best place in the world to come play.”

Although they did not start getting into the Transfer Portal trenches until they hoisted the National Championship, LSU has brought in five players this offseason. This includes Oregon left-hander Santiago Garcia, Tennessee left-hander Ryler Smart, North Dakota State LHP Danny Lachenmayer, High Point third baseman Brayden Simpson and Kansas State 2B Seth Dardar.

LSU, which won its eighth national title this season, has emerged as THE place to put college baseball players into the Major Leagues. In just the past two MLB Draft’s, LSU stars Paul Skenes, Dylan Crews, Ty Floyd, Grant Taylor and Tommy White have been selected in the first two rounds.

“I said this, people were laughing at me but if you’re a pitcher and you don’t want to come here you’re out to lunch,” he said with a laugh. “The Draft, signing bonus and all that… we’ve accumulated about 12 million real quickly in the past few years. And when this Draft starts we’ll have Kade [Anderson], Anthony [Eyanson] and Chase [Shores] getting to 14 million. I feel real proud of what we’ve done on that side of the ball with coach [Nate] Yeskie and it’s been awesome to see the results and its led to championships and Major League Baseball dreams.”