Rivals.com's LSU site, TigerDetails.com, reported Thursday morning that Arizona head coach Jay Johnson had emerged as the frontrunner for the vacant job with the Tigers. By Thursday afternoon the news broke that Johnson had accepted the job and will be leaving UA after six years at the helm in Tucson.
Johnson reportedly interviewed for the open position Tuesday just a day after the Wildcats were eliminated from the College World Series in Omaha.
Paul Mainieri announced his retirement last month after 15 years as the head coach at LSU leading to a national search for his replacement. East Carolina's Cliff Godwin and Notre Dame's Link Jarrett have emerged as the main contenders alongside Johnson up to this point.
The UA head coach is fresh off his second trip to the College World Series with the Wildcats. He took the team to within one win of a National Championship back in 2016.
The Wildcats put together one of the best seasons in recent program history this year having collected 45 wins in addition to an outright Pac-12 title, the school's first in three decades.
It earned UA a spot in the NCAA Tournament as the No. 5 overall seed allowing the Wildcats to host both a regional and super regional at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson.
Under Johnson the Wildcats have put together some offensive juggernauts with Arizona again having one of the top offensive teams in college baseball this season.
Ultimately the Wildcats made a quick exit from Omaha after losing their first two games of the CWS culminating with a 14-5 loss to Stanford. UA went toe to toe with Vanderbilt to open the CWS on Saturday but eventually lost, 7-6, in extra innings.
Still, Arizona has accomplished quite a bit in a short time in under Johnson having been to Omaha twice and the NCAA Tournament three times in just five full seasons. He has guided the Wildcats to a 208–114 record during his six years in Tucson.
A move to Baton Rouge will be a new path for Johnson. He has remained in the West throughout his career with stops at Point Loma Nazarene, where he previously played, San Diego and Nevada before arriving at UA.
The SEC is widely thought of as the top conference in college baseball and featured six of the top 16 national seeds in this year's NCAA Tournament. Johnson is expected to have a much larger salary at LSU, which is widely thought of as one of the top jobs in the country.
Meanwhile, UA star pitching coach Nate Yeskie is reportedly being pursued by another SEC school, Texas A&M, to take over the same role in College Station. With Johnson set to move on and take over at LSU, Yeskie is one likely option for the Wildcats as potential replacement.
Arizona's opening will certainly draw plenty of attention moving forward as the Wildcats have been to the College World Series three times since 2010. The athletic department has also invested more funding into the program signaled, partially, by the willingness to bring in a high-profile assistant like Yeskie after his successful stint at Oregon State.
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