Jay Johnson reacts to NCAA's decision to delay Game 1 between LSU, Kentucky

A little weather delay certainly didn’t dampen LSU’s spirits with Kentucky coming to town, as the Tigers took care of business 14-0 against the Wildcats.

In high spirits afterwards, LSU skipper Jay Johnson touched on the NCAA’s decision to delay the start time of their Super Regional showdown, explaining that he just tries to control what he can control.

“Yeah, I didn’t really think much about it, to be honest with you. I’ve said this before, when they tell us we can play, we’ll play, and we’ll play hard,” explained Johnson. “As you get older as a coach, you only focus on the things you can control. I’ve tried to get better at that. Not good at it all the time, but yeah, didn’t really think much of it. Really good job by the administrators here in the tournament of communicating and all of that, and really the hat tip of the whole thing is to the fans for being here at 2:00 and ready to go. That’s the earliest I’ve seen them in the ballpark for a game, which is awesome.

“Then to stick out a long day. That’s the loudest I’ve ever heard this stadium is when we took the field for the first inning tonight. That was special.”

As for how the entire process played out, Johnson had no qualms regarding the NCAA’s decision. It all worked out for the Tigers, as they won by two touchdowns, but the LSU manager is simply happy their fans still showed out and how a great time.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m very comfortable with the process of what happened. This is as professionally run a tournament as there is in college athletics. I don’t have any knowledge of what the college football playoff looks like, but I would guess things are very, very similar. We have a great committee or great administrators on the site. I think it’s good that they have discussions with us. I think the communication was fine,” added Johnson. “The largest window of lightning was at 3:00 p.m. today if you looked at it, and it was looked at from every angle. The enable weather service was on a call with myself, my sport administrator, their coach, their sport administrator, all the games committee, and if you listened to that call, there would probably be a greater understanding of why we didn’t start the game.

“I’m very comfortable with it, and as I said earlier, this is a big job, and this is an important job. Therefore, I focus on what I can control, which is the preparation of my team when they say go. They didn’t say go until 9:06. We tried a couple times, but it wasn’t going to work. If we’re about safety, then we need to be about safety. If we’re about fairness, we need to be about fairness. I’m comfortable with all of that. I appreciate being communicated to in the fashion we were by the people from the NCAA. I appreciate having the opportunity to listen to an expert at the weather, and I’m very comfortable with how the process played out. With that being said, as I said earlier, the stars of the delay are those fans out there in the purple and gold because they didn’t get discouraged or distracted by it. They showed up, and they showed up in a big way.”

Alas, Jay Johnson and the LSU Tigers have a shot to put the Kentucky Wildcats away on Sunday night, and many will be betting on them to do so. His team has been phenomenal all season, and their playoff run has been no different.