LSU Athletics
By Hunt Palmer
I’ll borrow a phrase from Lane Kiffin.
It’s just different.
LSU baseball is ‘just different’ in a lot of ways. Other schools don’t have a massive billboard with eight titles plastered across it in right field. They don’t have 40-year friends in Omaha they plan to visit every summer. They don’t have Warren Morris AND Brad Cresse or Ty Floyd AND Brett Laxton.
In college baseball, there is LSU, and there is everyone else.
That comes with so much good. Tiger fans think about baseball in fall and flood Biloxi for scrimmages. They chart scrimmages in January and pack Opening Day in February. They hang on every pitch in the spring and set Jell-O shot records in summer.
Because of the standard set by Skip Bertman and the successes of Paul Mainieri and Jay Johnson, Tiger fans and the program as a whole expect excellence. In the rare year that feels unattainable, the reaction to that is just different, as well.
Over the last two weeks, the tenor around this Tiger team has shifted drastically.
Johnson’s comments about “mistakes in constructing the team” came on April 17 with 14 SEC games remaining. He followed with remarks about the team defense and how it “might be a 2027 fix”. Part of my job is to have the pulse of the fan base. That group has largely turned the page to the June portal and fall ball 2026 with eyes on 2027.
At 6-12 with 12 league games to play, that’s different, and I’m not sure it’s great.
To be clear, I don’t think for one second that Johnson is coasting to the finish line with this team. And I don’t altogether disagree with his assertions about the construction of this team. In fact, I agree that the roster has some pieces who are here to swing the bat and aren’t. The defense is poor. The bullpen has struggled. The starting pitching hasn’t turned a corner, and the most productive hitter in the lineup just has his season stopped with a broken hand.
It’s bleak. I get that.
I also, like LSU fans everywhere, have seen April and May turnarounds in this sport. I’ve seen Kent State and Murray State and Stony Brook make a run at Omaha with minimal talent. I’ve seen Ole Miss turn a 14-16 SEC record into a national title. I watched a 1-11 Florida team make the postseason just 12 months ago. This program rose from 4-12 two years ago and rattled off 23 straight wins in 2008. What about the Rally Possum year?
Unlike college football, stretches of really bad play don’t totally sink a team.
On Monday, I said on my radio show that my hope was lost, and I regret it. My confidence is lost, but the season is literally not. Hope comes with that.
LSU still has future big leaguers on its roster and 12 league games to play with. Last season’s Texas A&M team lost Gavin Grahovac for the year and Caden Sorrell for stretches. Those Aggies still found a way to go win a series at Arkansas and take two of three from LSU. Those were the best two teams in the country in June. They fell short of the postseason, but they made it interesting.
Expecting excellence is a wonderful thing. Dismissing everything that falls short probably isn’t.
That’s why I didn’t love Johnson’s comments on Friday. Though he isn’t dismissing the rest of the season, it felt like a window for the fanbase to do it. Some have taken it. I’m not sure that would be the case in Oxford or Austin or Fayetteville.
I’m not suggesting that those fan bases would pack stadiums or project massive turnarounds at 6-12, but I don’t know that they would dismiss a month to the degree I’m feeling in Baton Rouge right now. Focus should be shifted to making the NCAA Tournament, not the transfer portal.
Come Monday, LSU could be 6-15 in league play and loser of nine straight SEC games. The Tigers could also be 8-13 with South Carolina coming to town. Sure, the former is about cooked. The latter is in trouble, but squarely in the mix.
Mississippi State was swept in back-to-back home weekends this year. They’ll slam more than 13,000 in Dudy Noble three times this weekend. Arkansas is 3-6 at home this year in SEC games. They’re alive.
LSU is multiple games behind both in the league standings, but those shuffle every weekend. Part of the tone in Baton Rouge is due to a high baseball IQ. Tiger fans and this head coach know what elite play is and that this group hasn’t shown it since leaving Jacksonville in February.
That’s reasonable.
I’m not asking for reason, just a little bit of belief. A Spark. A possum. Gold jerseys. Hold the rope.
Not every season is a championship run. Those that feel like one that are stopped short break hearts. We’ve probably erased that possibility before May 1. However, if Bethune-Cookman can win back-to-back games at LSU and Florida and Sacramento State can take 2-of-3 at The Box, maybe LSU can steal a series in Starkville over the weekend.
Thursday brings our last look at LSU football team for three months. They don’t play a game for four. Annually, that wait feels like an eternity. The same can be said for the time between June and February for so many Tiger baseball fans. January moves at a glacial pace until the team takes the field.
What we’re waiting for is right here. It’s warming weather, birds chirping, the ping of the bat and a chance to win a ballgame. Despite my words on Monday, I still reserve that hope for the next win and a level of excitement to watch the purple and gold take the field for a month.
I’ve watched this group make mistakes and drop games. I’ve heard the groans of the fanbase and fully understand the words of the coach. I don’t believe LSU is going to rattle off seven wins in 12 tries to make the committee make the call. I do believe LSU can.
My trip to Omaha is booked every January, and it hasn’t been cancelled.
Just don’t tell anyone I bought the insurance on it.
More LSU Stories
