Pitching problems derailed LSU’s 2026 season.
Sure, there were plenty of other issues, but the consistent thorn in LSU’s side was the pitching. The starters weren’t effective enough. They didn’t work deep enough into games, and the bullpen wasn’t equipped to cover the difference. No one threw enough strikes.
The situation Jay Johnson and Nate Yeskie now face is a pitching staff that returns four arms with SEC weekend starting experience.
Casan Evans has started 10 games against SEC opponents. William Schmidt made nine league starts as a sophomore. Cooper Moore was a weekend starter for Kansas in 2025 and made two SEC starts for LSU before his injury, and Marcos Paz got some seasoning late.
If you consider the roster financially, those four are going to command some cash as potential weekend starters. How much more is LSU willing to allocate to the weekend rotation with the understanding that plenty of the lineup has to be retooled as well?
To me, at least one more arm’s worth. Landon Hood could be that arm.
Hood earned West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year honors for the Zags this spring. He did it primarily as a bullpen arm that was asked for significant length. He provided it. And the consistency was remarkable.
Over the course of two weeks between March 14 and 27, he allowed 12 earned runs in 12.1 innings over three bumpy outings. In the other 13 outings of the year, the freshman hurler allowed four earned runs over 42 innings of work. That’s a 0.86 ERA. Part of that body of work was a three-inning outing at Oklahoma. The Bulldog rookie worked three innings of scoreless hitless baseball with seven strikeouts to earn the save.
Hood features a mid-90s fastball with a plus changeup that generates a ton of swings and misses. He’s 6-foot-3 and has room to grow at 200 pounds, but he’s far from skinny. His 21 walks in 54.1 innings are a touch high, but he’s got a fluid delivery and should be able to clean that up.
This recruitment is interesting. Hood went into the portal with a “no contact” tag which would insinuate he’s got an option or two. He hails from Surprise, Ariz. I happen to know a coach who spent some time 140 miles from there in Tucson. Johnson was at LSU by the time Hood got to high school, so this wouldn’t be a player Johnson recruited to Arizona. Still, there has to be a connection there.
LSU is low on left handers with starting potential, and I thought that might be a priority for Johnson in this portal cycle. It still may be. Brody Trosclair was LSU’s first visitor, and he’s a lefty. But, count Hood as a primary target for LSU and an arm the Tiger staff would very much like to add to the fold.
With a “no contact” tag on his portal entry, this may not be a recruitment that drags for three weeks.
