By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
As far as LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson and his players are concerned, the best way to repeat as national champions is to put the fact that you just won the national championship out of their collective minds.
“That team will go down as a forever type team,” Johnson said at the Tigers’ Media Day in Alex Box Stadium Friday. “But everybody is ready to turn the page.”
The Tigers, who are No. 1 in the nation in Perfect Game’s preseason poll, open the season on Friday, Feb. 13 against Milwaukee at 2 p.m. at the Box. They return 19 players from the 53-15 Tigers of last season, including national Freshman of the Year outfielder Derek Curiel and first team freshman All-American pitcher Casan Evans.
The outfield returns in full with Curiel moving to center from left and senior Chris Stanfield going to left from center and junior Jake Brown in right.
“It’s really important we always appreciate what we did last year,” Johnson said. “But be all in on right now.”
That is the motto for 2026 – All In For Now.
“If you’re all in on now in 2026, 2025 is completely irrelevant,” Johnson said. “The jungle we play in that is the SEC, the best league in all of college sports, requires your best every day. We have a group eager to do that.”
SEC play opens at No. 19 Vanderbilt on Friday, March 13.
“Obviously, there’s a great history here,” Curiel said as the Tigers won their second national title in three seasons last year and nine overall since the first one in 1991 under coach Skip Bertman. “But this is about this team making history.”
But, wow, last season was a great one. The Tigers went 10-1 in the NCAA postseason, sweeping West Virginia in the Super Regional and going 5-0 in Omaha.
“But it doesn’t have a lot of relevance,” Johnson said.
But then again, he did say how valuable the experience of Omaha can be for players’ confidence going into the next season. And much of this team played in Omaha last season.
“There’s something about getting to the College World Series,” Johnson admitted.
So, it must be relevant, albeit in the past.
“You can use it,” he said.
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