What Jay Johnson said after winning CWS Title

LSU defeated Florida 18-4 on Monday night to win the program’s seventh national title and first since 2009. The dogpile ensued, head coach Jay Johnson won his first championship in his third trip to the College World Series, and LSU was back on top.

Opening statement

COACH JOHNSON: I don’t know where to start. I’ll do the best I can with this. The national championship team, I think the most gratifying part of it is they were national championship people every single day of this thing. And kind of feels like a two-year win, if that makes sense.

I think about meeting with Cade right when I got the job and said, hey, we’re going to go to work and change a lot of things. And just his coachability, amazing.

Dylan is the best player in college baseball history, in my opinion. And just so thankful.

And frankly, it was a big reason that I accepted the job. I probably would have looked at LSU anyways, but knowing that I was going to have once-in-a-lifetime player on my team for two years was a big deal to do that.

I think about Thatcher. I told him, you know, when he said, yes, that he was going to come to LSU, I said, hey, big guy, you might be the most important recruit of my entire career, because I knew what the other three on the stage would do.

But to get to the national championship and get to the NCAA Tournament we needed real aces. And that’s an ace right there, and one of the best pitchers in the country. It’s kind of cool to feel that full circle.

I don’t know that I’ll ever have children like Jordan is as close to what I would consider a son as anybody. And I’m so proud of him. I think Dylan and Jordan are the only two players that have started every single game for the last two years.

What a championship performance, heartbeat of our team. And I’m so proud of them. That kind of gives you some insight into it.

Some other thoughts. I really believe this will go down in one of the best teams in college baseball history. So consistent in the regular season. I think the SEC Tournament is the only week of the year we had a losing record, if you think about that.

Not only one losing week for an entire regular season. 11 wins in the postseason, six of them against SEC teams. And I really believe we played and beat every team, the best team that we could have played along the way throughout the entire tournament at that spot.

So I love these guys. I’m so proud of them. And they are a worthy champion, if there ever was a worthy champion.

Q. You came to this game, it looked like Paul Skenes might go at any time. At what point did you know that you were going to be able to win a three-game series without him even throwing a pitch?

COACH JOHNSON: You know, the three in the eighth, when we scored three in the eighth I felt like the wind was out of their sails. You could see the pressing in some of their at-bats was taking them out of their plan. We were just able to keep piling up quick outs.

Like, after three, I didn’t think we would get Thatcher through six. But we started to separate there and made it 10-2. Then we got a couple of quick innings. That made a huge difference.

Riley had one inning in him. And at a 10-2 lead right there, I felt we could get a quick seventh. And then it’s Gavin. And then Paul’s begging me to pitch the ninth. And I’m, like, absolutely not.

If they get within five we’ll get you up and throwing.

But it’s not coach-speak or anything. Like we really go through these assessments with them in terms of his hips, his back, his lower half, all of those things.

So his body is a great delivery. He needed to be able to stay in his delivery. We had to test all that stuff. Obviously test his arm. And then we felt like if we needed him we would have him for 30 pitches tonight. Then it became a decision of when do you use those 30 pitches.

And I felt like we would have given Florida a shot in the arm had I started him throwing two innings and taken him out of the game. And I didn’t want to do that.

I felt like with a three-run lead in the eighth, and they see him trot out there, the psychological help that that would have been for our team would have been enough to finish a close game.

Q. You shared a very special moment with Jordan Thompson after the game. And just the last 24 hours, what he’s been through and to have the game he had tonight, just your thoughts on that?

COACH JOHNSON: You see, 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. (Laughter.)

Has a great family. Cole Holland, his coach at Helix High School, is a good friend of mine. There’s a lot of history there before me taking the job. As I mentioned with Dylan, knowing Jordan was here for at least a couple of years, that was an appeal to it.

Last year, the guy got so many big hits. 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.

We went to work. I mean, every day, August 21st on, like the first day of school we had skill instruction and field defense.

And 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. I mean, 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.

And so if you just identify them for what they are and then coach them through it, there was never any thought of taking him out. And in the last 24 hours, just kind of — 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.

Q. This team was number one for 12 straight weeks. It’s like not a question that they got this far, but this team had to play with its back against the wall the entire tournament. Is there an underdog mindset that sets in? How do you push through that?

COACH JOHNSON: I don’t think there was any underdog thought with this team. I think we tried to take the number one thing and turn it to our advantage. Everybody was asking me about pressure and expectations.

And what you don’t understand is it always comes back to the play and back to the preparation, things you’ve heard me say a million times. I actually don’t just say that, we actually believe it.

I choked up, I looked at Cade, and just watching the tournament that he had and just thinking about where he was, where we got him, then he got hurt, missed a season, stayed with it. Had to beg him to come back — not beg him, but recruit him to come back and not move on with his life.

And then to have that tournament. We’re not the national champions without him.

So those things happen all the time. And a big thing for us, as we were going through this, is great teams play near their capability often. And I talked about staying in character a lot. And, again, those are not just words. That’s what we had to do.

And if we did that, then I could surrender the result because I had so much confidence in what the result could be. And maybe the one time was when we lost a tough game to Wake Forest, the other night.

I thought they looked a little down. And so, like, I grabbed them and just tried to rally them. Before we left, it’s like, okay, we’re not asking you to do something that hasn’t been done here. I’ve coached a team that’s done it. And LSU has done it before. Neither of those teams were as good as this team.

Now, we had a tall order when you’re looking at Drew Beam and Tennessee, and then two games against Wake Forest and Rhett Lowder. That’s impressive. The national championship means more because of who we beat to win the national championship.

Q. What do you remember about the process of putting this team together this past offseason, and what were those sort of hours and days like? And what was going through your head the whole time?

COACH JOHNSON: I think we looked at last year’s team. I’m really proud — part of me will feel like this national championship is for 2022 also. Like, we really had to dig our heels in. I mean, in the SEC, it happens fast. That was a ninth place team in 2021 in the SEC.

And we worked really — I knew there were some good, young players, obviously. We worked really hard to develop those guys. We worked really hard to develop those guys, but we just didn’t have enough on the mound. Like, guys have been hurt.

I think it was Marceaux and Jaden Hill were moving on in the draft. We didn’t have a rotation. Thank God Ma’Khail Hilliard came back to school and flipped 70-mile-an-hour curveballs in there, and we were able to win enough games to have a 40-win season.

But I just didn’t want to be in that position again. And felt like the pieces were here, with the position player group was a national championship team last year. Very similar, to be honest with you. But we had to get better on the mound. And we did.

And I think back of the week the College World Series started last year, I flew to Colorado Springs and met with Paul. I flew from there to California and met with Thatcher. From there I flew to Missouri and met with Christian. I flew from there to Tampa and met with Tommy the next week.

They all came on campus except for Paul. We had to wait for Team USA to be over. Called Paul every day of the summer.

And then we got them on board. And knowing that we were pairing all of those guys with the strides that some of these guys had made in one year’s time we felt pretty good about what this was going to be. And they were very humble about it, too.

This league’s a beast. To beat Kentucky in the Super Regional, to beat Tennessee twice here, to beat Florida to win the national championship, that’s really meaningful, because it’s one thing to have the best writers in the country write about how great you are. It’s an entirely different thing to go do it on the field.

Q. Does this core, this core that you guys are going to be losing obviously after this year, just talk about what it means, I guess, for the future of the program to kind of have some of these guys that have meant so much and kind of developed a legacy here for what you want to build going forward?

COACH JOHNSON: I think it’s coaching. And I think looking at the past few College World Series champions, and just looking at this tournament, there’s two things — I said this the other day — you can’t be here anymore without future Major League players on your roster.

It’s not happening. I don’t know a ton about Oral Roberts because they were on the other side of the bracket. I’m sure there’s a couple of big leaguers on that team. Then you have to have old players that really know what they’re doing.

I think I’m excited about the young players that got exposed to this. And hey, man, Jared Jones, he’s a big reason we’re here. That’s a borderline Freshman All-American.

Paxton Kling, he’s a superstar in the making. Thatcher Hurd, every guy that pitched tonight might be back next year. The Wake game, all those guys might be back next year.

We’ve got some work to do. Hopefully the time lost on the road, I mean that’s about as good an endorsement as you can come up with of what took place here the last two weeks.

Q. I had a chance to visit with your dad on the field a while ago. He was great. He said that you told him, when you were 5 that you were going to be a baseball coach. What’s it like to share this experience with him and he brought up kind of the seven-year journey from you making it to the championship at Arizona to today and how difficult that was the first time?

COACH JOHNSON: Wow. Might see me crack here. A, because I got started on this coaching journey really early. It’s at the high school level but I grew up in the house of a legend. He’s the winningest track coach in California history. He didn’t lose for like 10 years, like 10 years. And he was a great football coach, offensive coordinator. My heroes were his running backs, and that’s all I wanted to be.

So, I mean, yeah, that part in itself is something enough. But I sat next to Bill seven years ago today with leaving the tying run on third base in this game and the winning run on second base. And I think about it every single day.

And this championship is for this team and it’s about this team. But personally, part of me feels like I got a little bit of that back tonight for those guys.

And they texted — we have a group text, the 2016 team. And Friday morning on the off day I just walked around the stadium. One of them texted me on there. I said when we get this done that’s partly going to be for you guys.

Q. To feed off this question, the coach has always had support. What would you like to say to your support and your staff?

COACH JOHNSON: Wow. This is a special place. It’s a really special place. And I mean, Scott’s there in the back. I think he’s the best athletic director in the country. I’m obviously very grateful for him giving me this opportunity.

I mean, it’s roll the dice. Man the west out here hasn’t worked out. It hasn’t worked out. I actually called a couple of guys that tried to do it just to avoid some of the pitfalls and got some great information from them.

But they really, I think, they took a chance. If you look at it in the big picture. But I know what our process is. And so for him, Stephanie Rempe, who is no longer with us, Dan Gaston is in the back, sports supervisor. Verge Ausberry. I sat in front of them and wanted this worse than anything else in the world and believed that I could do it, that I could do it with this group.

And they gave me the chance. So I’m grateful for that. But that’s not where it stops. It’s every single day. I mean, what baseball coach’s athletic director calls them two or three times a week? Everything good? Dan is in my office every single day, what do you need? How can we make this process that you’re trying to develop the best it possibly can be?

And then I’m just going to go for a second here. There’s a lot of people that made this happen tonight. Wes Johnson is a special coach. I mean, he is a special coach. And I’m not worried about replacing the pitching coach, I’m worried about replacing the person. That’s going to be the difficulty because he’s such a great person.

Josh Jordan, coming over here from Duke, he’s an insane worker. I can’t beat him into the office and all I do is work. It’s amazing. He’s done a great job for us.

Marc Wanaka, we’ve been together for like 25 years now, and the only coach that’s been on my staff every step along the way. And you can’t do it any better than he does it, and he doesn’t get near the credit.

Dan Fitzgerald, now head coach at Kansas, we got to work when we got here. We got to work, and he busted his rear end to help put some of this team together. We don’t get Nate Ackenhausen without Fitzgerald.

Jayson Kelly, last year, we did a lot with a little on the mound. And he deserves a lot of credit for that. Now head coach at the University of Washington. Coach Mainieri, I mentioned earlier on the field, making a transition as easy as it possibly could be. Spending time with him.

Nolan King recruited Dylan Crews. That’s a massive hat tip right there. Alan Dunn. Those guys, like it’s pretty awesome to look back at that.

And the G.O.A.T. himself, like, Skip Bertman, we’re either in person or on the phone three to four times a week. And I’m sure I’m leaving some people out, but a lot of people contributed to this. And it makes it even that much more special.

Q. At most schools winning a national championship is like a fan’s once-in-a-lifetime, and LSU, 14 years is like forever, from what Skip built. Did you feel that pressure when you walk in and maybe why you took the job, embraced those six national titles and wanting to add one?

COACH JOHNSON: I don’t ever really think about it because that would distract me from doing what it takes to accomplish it. And I know that sounds super weird. But I’m not a normal dude in that regard.

I mean, like I said, sitting here next to Bill seven years ago was literally one of the most painful moments of my entire life.

I wanted to win a national championship, and I wanted these guys to win a national championship. I wanted last year’s team to come to Omaha because nobody in the program had been to Omaha.

I mean, nobody — other than the transfers we had brought in. So like just taking a second out there and looking at Dylan and looking at Tre’, and looking at Jordan and looking at Ty Floyd. We had to win game one. Obviously everybody saw what happened yesterday. As we were mapping out the series. We have to win Saturday night. We had to win that game to win the national championship. We knew that going into it.

And the performance he gave, I want it for everybody — it’s a great state. It’s like where I grew up. I want it for LSU. I know all that legacy and tradition. I’m so honored to be part of that. I really wanted it for these guys because they’ve done everything that I’ve asked them to do and set the standard better than you could possibly do. And that’s why this is important. Not just because we’re national champions, but because we’ve been national champions every day of this thing.

Q. Alex Milazzo said he was taught to play the game one way, hard, and I don’t know if there’s one way to sum up the team but him scoring from first and breaking a bone in his foot or whatever happened there, could you talk about that play and the player he is?

COACH JOHNSON: How about the at-bats he gave us all year long? I remember looking at that stat line in ’21 when I took the job, and, I mean, I had fans like sending me emails right when I got there, get rid of Milazzo, he can’t hit, terrible, worse hitter I’ve ever seen. Shouldn’t be a Division I baseball player. I looked up at the board tonight. I’m pretty sure he hit over .290. One of the best defensive catchers in college baseball.

More importantly than that, and that’s all throughout this team, whatever we needed him to do when we needed to do it, he did it. It wasn’t like I need more playing time, I need this. He was ready the whole way. Wasn’t the starter. And four years into a career, when a freshman beats you out to be able to stay with it, be a great teammate, be ready to make your contribution, quadruple your production from an offensive standpoint, have every pitcher want to throw to you, like, there’s a good chance he’ll be on our coaching staff some day. That would not surprise me.

I always say, in practice, sometimes, when we’re doing like a trick play or something, “Milazzo, when you’re the head coach at Zachary High School you’ll be able to do it with your team.” He’s special. All LSU.

I was thinking, in the ninth inning, wait, this is going to happen. Somebody’s got to pick him up and throw him on top of the dogpile with a broken foot.

Q. Talk about the runners on base.

COACH JOHNSON: I’ll give you insight. I didn’t want to tip our struggles because we had to stay with the team. But today we had nine really good at-bats here with runners in scoring position. So we played them on loop. And they were short swings, low-line drives to the middle of the infield of guys not trying to do too much. So behind the scenes, that’s where we were trying to get to.

But there’s a real part of this thing where we just faced as good of pitching as you could for six of these eight games. And they made it hard. They did a nice job of it tonight. That’s how I’ll remember this team with runners in scoring position, is the 18-4 winning the national championship game.