Jay Johnson acknowledges ‘difficulty’ of leaving UA for LSU; search for replacement continues

Wearing a gray suit, a purple striped tie and a matching LSU baseball cap, Jay Johnson was introduced in Baton Rouge on Monday.

He didn’t mention his former school, Arizona, during the 20 or so minutes he spoke before answering questions from the media. But queries came about his West Coast roots and the job he left, and Johnson acknowledged a degree of “difficulty” in parting ways with a program he helped rebuild.

“The difficulty is in relationships with players. That's what matters to me,” Johnson said. “I left a team that accomplished a lot of things. They did it with ... great fundamentals, a competitive attitude and were great people. So the difficulty was leaving that team.

“That’s exactly why I feel like I'm right for a place like this, because I do invest in the players and I do invest in the relationships – I invest in their process to be good. That's the only difficulty.

“The rest of it is, ‘Let's go.’ And there was probably one place in the country that there was a ‘let's go’ attitude. We're standing here right now.”

Johnson described LSU as the “ultimate” destination and “THE place in college baseball.”

“Everything is possible here,” Johnson said.

With predecessors Skip Bertman and Paul Mainieri in the room, Johnson reiterated that LSU represents “the opportunity of my lifetime.” He previously had framed Arizona as his dream job and acknowledged that many would question his decision to leave Tucson.

“Wait, why'd you do that? What are you doing? You are a West Coast guy. That’s comfortable,” Johnson said.

“That's not what I'm about. You stare down the challenge. You figure out how to put the pieces in place to be successful, and then we're going for it.”

Johnson is not expected to bring either of his top two assistant coaches, Nate Yeskie and Dave Lawn, with him to Baton Rouge.

UA job update

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Yeskie reportedly is set to be named the pitching coach at Texas A&M. He was interested in the UA opening, but the school did not reciprocate — possibly a sign that Athletic Director Dave Heeke already had another coach in mind.

Others who’ve expressed interest in the job behind the scenes include former Johnson assistants Lawn and Sergio Brown, as well as former standout UA player Shelley Duncan, who’s currently the analytics coordinator for the Chicago White Sox.

It remains to be seen whether Heeke will pursue candidates who aren’t currently college head coaches. The job posting lists “five years head-coaching experience at an NCAA Division I-level program” as one of the “preferred qualifications.”

D1Baseball.com listed seven candidates for the UA job: Central Michigan coach Jordan Bischel, UC Santa Barbara coach Andrew Checketts, Washington State coach Brian Green, Detroit Tigers third-base coach Chip Hale, Baylor coach Steve Rodriguez, Long Beach State coach Eric Valenzuela and Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski.

All-Americans

Star UA freshmen Jacob Berry and Daniel Susac have added to their stockpile of accolades, landing spots on the D1Baseball.com and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association All-America teams. Arizona reliever Vince Vannelle also made the NCBWA list.

Berry made D1Baseball’s second team as the DH; Susac was the website’s third-team catcher. Berry made the NCBWA first team, Vannelle the second team, Susac the third.

Berry batted .352 with 17 home runs and 70 RBIs – the latter the most in the Pac-12. He also led the league in extra-base hits.

Susac, who started almost every game at catcher, hit .335 with 12 homers and 65 RBIs. He tied for the Pac-12 lead and set a UA freshman record with 24 doubles. The Pac-12 Freshman of the Year also posted a .996 fielding percentage.

Vannelle, a fifth-year senior, had a 5-3 record with a 2.78 ERA and a team-high eight saves. He also posted a 10.58 K/9 rate.

This year marks the first time three Wildcats have made the NCBWA All-America teams.