Jay Johnson wouldn’t be an Arizona Wildcat if it weren’t for Greg Byrne. Byrne brought Johnson to Tucson in June 2015, launching a new era of UA baseball.
So you can understand why Johnson had mixed emotions upon learning that Byrne was leaving Arizona to become the athletic director at Alabama.
Of course Johnson was happy for his colleague.
“Very happy for him,” Johnson said Thursday. “I do believe he is one of the best, if not the best, at his craft in the profession. What separates him is the consistency on a daily basis of who he is and how he worked, how motivated he was to help make all of us coaches here at Arizona be successful.”
Johnson congratulated Byrne when they spoke earlier this week. Johnson also said: “Darn it.”
He knew he was losing a friend and advocate — the AD who hired him, shifted the baseball program’s base of operations to Hi Corbett Field and gave him a raise after Arizona’s run to the College World Series finals in June.
Johnson will miss Byrne but said neither his departure nor the identity of the next athletic director will affect the team’s day-to-day approach.
“I don’t think about things that I cannot control,” Johnson said. “What I can guarantee the next person is, they’ll have a baseball program that is extremely hard-working and very committed to doing things right. I think anybody can get on board with that.”
Football to baseball?
Jack-of-all-trades football player Matt Morin is not a member of the Arizona baseball team just yet.
Morin, who played tight end, quarterback and running back as a redshirt senior in the fall, is hoping to join the baseball team as a walk-on pitcher.
The strong-armed left-hander remains in a tryout phase of sorts. Johnson and his staff still need to see him pitch in a competitive setting. There are also NCAA eligibility hurdles that must be cleared.
Johnson said he admires Morin’s perseverance and would like to have him around if it works out. Morin hasn’t played baseball since high school.
“I like Matt a lot,” Johnson said. “He came and talked to me last year, (but) last year we were not in a place to be able to fit that into what we were doing.
“The fact that he stuck with it and came back to me this year, had a plan … we’re trying to give him an opportunity. We’ll see over the next few weeks where that opportunity goes.”
Arizona is set to begin practice next Friday.
The season opener is Feb. 17 against Eastern Kentucky.
Inside pitch
- Arizona is ranked 19th in the initial D1Baseball.com Top 25 — a far cry from 2016, when the Wildcats were picked to finish ninth in the Pac-12.
- Freshman right-hander Austin Nichols will miss the season because of an arm injury, Johnson said.
