Jay Johnson opens up on his relationship with Jordan Thompson, his journey through College World Series

LSU shortstop Jordan Thompson has had a rollercoaster career with the Tigers. But the ups-and-downs reached a new peak Monday with Thompson lifting the national championship trophy.

It had been a long week-plus in Omaha for Thompson but he came through with a big Game 3, which made LSU head coach Jay Johnson very proud.

“We go way back, back before any of this LSU stuff. When he was a 15-year-old kid I was trying to recruit him to Arizona as a pitcher. I remember seeing him walking by at a tournament. He had just picked LSU over Arizona. And he just looked at me like, go like this, and I’d shake my head and say, I’m still mad at you. I’m still mad at you,” Johnson said with a laugh.

Johnson took over the Tigers ahead of the 2022 season, which was Thompson’s sophomore season. Thompson had been the main starter at short as a freshman and he continued that role as a sophomore, even as he struggled defensively.

But Thompson recovered for a solid campaign, finishing the year with a .349 batting average with runners in scoring position and .286 batting average overall.

“Last year, the guy got so many big hits,” Johnson said. “But he made so many errors at the beginning of the season nobody paid attention to how important a player he was to the team. And it pissed me off to be honest with you. It pissed me off frankly because we wouldn’t have been in a Regional last year if it wasn’t for Jordan Thompson.”

Thompson spent part of the summer on Cape Cod with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. When he returned to LSU ahead of this year, Johnson and his staff focused on his defense.

“We went to work. I mean, every day, August 21st on, like the first day of school, we had skill instruction and field defense,” Johnson said. “I’m really proud of the season that he had. And he had a tough tournament until tonight. He got way outside of himself at the plate. But there was no way we were going to take the defense out because the defense had been so good. And then he made two errors yesterday and they were really simple. He came out of his fundamentals on the double-play ball by trying to do too much. Then he tried to do too much and get the guy at third base.”

Jordan Thompson came up clutch in Game 3 of the 2023 Men’s College World Series finals

Jordan Thompson entered Monday’s winner-take-all Game 3 with one hit in 30 at-bats in the Men’s College World Series.

But in the biggest game of his life, Thompson went 2-for-6 at the plate with two runs scored and three RBI. That includes an RBI single that started the second-inning rally that gave LSU the lead it would never surrender.

“There was never any thought of taking him out,” Johnson said. “And in the last 24 hours, my wife’s asking me, is Jordan okay, this and that. Not really knowing all of it — and so I brought him into my room this morning and go, like, hey, man, we’re winning the national championship tonight. And you’re going to do something special. But is there anything I can do to help you get to that point tonight? And he looked me in the eye and said, “I’m good.” And I saw tonight happen before it happened.”