By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson loves football. His dad Jerry was the football coach at Oroville High in Oroville, California, where Jay grew up.
Johnson, who won his second national championship at LSU last season, has long admired former Alabama and LSU coach Nick Saban, who won a national title at LSU and six at Alabama Johnson models his program after Saban’s programs and talks about him and his “process” often.
Johnson will shoot for a third national championship in the 2026 season, which opens Friday when the No. 1 Tigers host Milwaukee (2 p.m., SEC Network+)
Listen to complete interview with LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson here as he discusses season that opens Friday. And we talk Kim Mulkey and Dawn Staley before huge tilt Saturday night.https://t.co/CyQLqw2voh
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) February 11, 2026
A disciple of Saban recently became LSU’s new football coach – Lane Kiffin, formerly the head coach at Ole Miss, and before that he was Saban’s offensive coordinator at Alabama from 2014-16. And Johnson couldn’t wait to meet him.
“I did meet him at the day of the press conference,” Johnson said on Tiger Rag Radio Tuesday night of Kiffin’s introductory press conference on Dec. 1. “I at that point was convinced he had no idea who I was, which is totally Ok, and no idea that LSU won the baseball national championship last year, which is totally Ok. He’s here for the job of being the football coach, so. I understand how that goes.”
And Kiffin had a lot of work to do as of Dec. 1. A little over two months later, and Kiffin had the No. 1 Transfer Portal class in the country with 41 new Tigers after also signing the No. 1 portal class at Ole Miss in 2024.
Johnson, by the way, has the current No. 1 portal class in baseball going into the 2026 season. And he had the No. 1 transfer class going into 2023 with pitcher Paul Skenes of Air Force and third baseman Tommy White of North Carolina State. Each played prominent roles in the Tigers winning the 2023 national title as Skenes took the College World Series MVP before being taken No. 1 overall in the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft by Pittsburgh. White hit a walk-off home to beat No. 1 Wake Forest to put the Tigers in the national championship series against Florida.
Both coaches are about the same age. Kiffin turns 51 on May 9. Johnson will be 49 on April 20.
“Got a message from him maybe two weeks ago,” Johnson said. “It just said, ‘Hey, Jay, it’s Lane, I want to come over and see you. Finally got this team put together.'”
Johnson was laughing as he relayed that.
“He was just so matter of fact about it,” Johnson said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, you did.’ So I’m looking forward to getting together with him. He’s texted me a couple of other times since then.”
Johnson and Kiffin are close in age. Johnson turns 49 this year, while Kiffin will turn 51.
“Love the energy that he’s bringing, and I really believe that good days are ahead for football and Tiger Stadium for sure,” Johnson said.
Kiffin borrowed a page from Johnson’s Twitter style as he started recruiting for the Tigers. He puts a little Tiger figure on his tweets after he gets a commitment.
“I don’t know that he stole it,” Johnson said. “But I’m Ok with that. That’s awesome. I think that’s pretty cool. I mean, we can be a baseball and a football school. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Notice, Johnson put baseball before football.
I see Kiffin throwing out a first pitch soon.
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