Jay Johnson named National Coach of the Year

By Matt Moscona

BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson, who this season directed the Tigers to their second College World Series title in three years, was named Monday the 2025 National Coach of the Year by D1Baseball.com.

It is the second such honor this summer for Johnson, as the American Baseball Coaches Association named him National Coach of the Year on June 25.

At the helm of the nation’s most storied college baseball programs for the past four seasons, Johnson has enhanced LSU’s elite legacy by guiding the Tigers to the 2023 and 2025 College World Series titles, marking the seventh and eighth National Championships in school history.

Johnson is the fastest coach to win multiple CWS championships during his tenure at a single school. The previous mark was set by Jim Morris, who claimed NCAA trophies in 1999 and 2001 during his first eight seasons at Miami (Fla.).

The 2025 Tigers posted a 53-15 overall record and finished the year on an eight-game win streak, culminated by a two-game series sweep of Coastal Carolina June 21-22 in the College World Series Finals.

Of Johnson’s impact upon the LSU program in his first four seasons, D1 Baseball’s Aaron Fitt writes:

Johnson has solidified his place at the very pinnacle of his profession by leading the tradition-rich LSU program into a new golden age. The Tigers won six national championships between 1991-2000 under the leadership of Skip Bertman, then added another title under Paul Mainieri in 2009. Now, Johnson has established LSU as college baseball’s premier program during the new era of the transfer portal and NIL money. But he’s done it by blending traditional prep recruiting and development of home-grown talent with an expert touch in the portal.

 This year’s team was a prime example, as LSU constructed a stellar homegrown core (led by Jared Jones, Steven Milam, Kade Anderson, Derek Curiel, Ethan Frey, Chase Shores, Jake Brown and Casan Evans), then supplemented it with key portal acquisitions (Anthony Eyanson, Zac Cowan, Daniel Dickinson, Luis Hernandez, Chris Stanfield and Michael Braswell). Finding the right balance when it comes to roster construction is tricky, but Johnson has shown a wonderful knack for it. His ability to win it all with a largely different group of players than the team that won the 2023 national title is particularly striking.

The 2025 LSU pitching staff, featuring All-Americans Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson, finished No. 4 in the nation in strikeouts per nine innings (11.7), No. 6 in hits allowed per nine innings (7.27), No. 7 in team ERA (3.73) and No. 12 in strikeout to walk ratio (2.83).

Anderson led the nation with 180 total strikeouts, and Eyanson finished No. 3 in the nation with 152 total Ks.

The LSU hitters, led by All-Americans Jared Jones and Derek Curiel, completed the season No. 6 in the nation in runs scored (536), No. 7 in bases on balls (360), No. 8 in hits (671) and No. 9 in doubles (136).

Jones finished eighth in the nation with 22 home runs, and he increased his career total to 64 homers, the third-highest mark in LSU history. Curiel batted a team-high .345 and last week was named the D1 Baseball National Freshman of the Year.

Johnson has a 507-249 (.671) record in 13 seasons as a college head coach, including a 190-77 (.712) mark in four seasons at LSU. He has a 43-16 (.729) record in NCAA Tournament games, including a 26-7 (.788) mark with the Tigers.

Johnson has a 16-7 career mark in the College World Series, including a 5-5 mark in two CWS appearances (2016, 2021) at Arizona and an 11-2 record in two CWS appearances (2023, 2025) at LSU.

He has developed 32 Major Leaguers during his collegiate coaching career, including former LSU right-hander Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the starting pitcher for the National League in the 2024 MLB All-Star Game and the 2024 NL Rookie of the Year; and former LSU outfielder Dylan Crews of the Washington Nationals, who won the 2023 Golden Spikes Award and made his MLB debut in August 2024.

In just his second season at LSU, Johnson directed the Tigers to the 2023 National Championship as their drive to the title was culminated with an 18-4 win over Florida in Game 3 of the College World Series Finals.

He was voted 2023 National Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association, Baseball America magazine, D1 Baseball.com, and Collegiate Baseball newspaper.

LSU Press Release