GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
It can be done.
And it happens all the time in coaching, more than you probably realize. It also happens more than most probably realize in non-coaching job switches as well.
People finish one job while they know they are about to take, or have started preliminary work on, a new job, sometimes in secret. And usually, no one gets jobbed.
LSU assistant baseball coach/recruiting coordinator Josh Jordan is expected to be named Duke’s new baseball coach as soon as the Tigers finish the 2025 season at the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. That could be as late as after next Monday, June 23, which is the scheduled day that the best-of-three national championship series will end, barring bad weather, unless it ends in two games on Sunday.
Good Morning, @LSUbaseball It must be close to summer:https://t.co/yEjUzOf9wC
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) June 14, 2025
The No. 6-seeded Tigers (48-15) and Jordan are in Omaha for the time being. They play No. 3 seed Arkansas (48-13) at 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPN in the feature game of the opening round.
Jordan will be coaching third base and watching a lot of the players he helped LSU head coach Jay Johnson sign for some of the nation’s top recruiting classes since Jordan came to LSU in July of 2022 from Duke, where he had held a similar position since 2012.
Duke head coach Chris Pollard announced that he would become the new head coach at Virginia on Tuesday – a night after Murray State beat Duke in the Super Regional final to reach the College World Series. But Duke is in Omaha in a way via Jordan and enjoying all the public relations. Murray State lost to UCLA, 6-4, at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha on Saturday afternoon and will play the LSU-Arkansas loser at 1 p.m. Monday with the two winners playing at 6 p.m. Monday.
Pollard replaces Brian O’Connor, who recently left to become Mississippi State’s new coach after the firing Chris Lemonis during the past season.
JAY JOHNSON WANTS TO KEEP JOSH JORDAN
“I’m happy for coach Jordan that people are recognizing the work that he’s put in,” Johnson said at a press conference in Omaha on Thursday. “And I hope our people at LSU recognize it, too, because I want to keep him.”
Jordan did help Johnson win his first national title in 2023 at LSU. But Jordan likely wants to be a head coach at Duke beyond any significant raise at LSU. So, he will likely be multi-tasking – coaching LSU and probably making calls to hire staff and sign players out of the portal when he can for Duke. That’s not illegal. It’s not bad. It’s not a conflict of interest. It’s just time management. And he better do it for his own good and future.
“As far as the Omaha thing, that’s just about being a man and compartmentalizing those things,” said Johnson, who interviewed for the LSU head coaching job to a degree while coaching Arizona in the postseason in 2021 when the Wildcats went 0-2 in Omaha. “I have no questions about our staff and our ability to prepare with other things going on.”
Johnson compared it to navigating the imports and exports of the NCAA Transfer Portal, which he has been doing since June 2 while coaching the Tigers in the post season.
“It’s a distraction as well,” he said. “But I expect them to be able to have their areas locked up.”
Jordan also coaches the catchers and first basemen.
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While Jordan has been in Omaha since Wednesday, a former LSU football defensive coordinator was recruiting players and assistant coaches to join him in his new job as head coach at Nebraska – 40 miles from Omaha in Lincoln – after the 2007 season, while in Baton Rouge coaching the Tigers for the national championship game on Jan. 7, 2008.
And that juggling by LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini didn’t cost the Tigers a national championship. LSU beat Ohio State, which was Pelini’s alma mater, in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, 38-24, for the title with Pelini’s unit allowing just 14 points over the final three quarters.
Pelini, who had one of the nation’s best defenses in 2007-08, actually was being paid by LSU and by Nebraska simultaneously as he moonlighted during bowl preparations with no let-up. And Pelini won immediately at Nebraska, going 9-4 five times in his seven seasons in Lincoln and 10-4 twice with his Big Ten or Big 12 record never dropping below 5-3 and reaching 7-1 in 2012. And that came after his predecessor, Bill Callahan could do no better than 9-5 and had two losing seasons with a 15-17 Big 12 mark.
In the 10 seasons since Pelini, three Nebraska coaches – Mike Riley, Scott Frost and Matt Rhule – have failed to win more than seven games nine times with but one nine-win season by Riley in 2016.
Johnson is fully confident in Jordan in likely his last games at LSU and in his future likely at Duke.
“I expect them (his assistants) to be able to execute what they need to do in that space and have our team ready to play,” Johnson said. “How we’re designed as a staff helps in that regard, because I do so much of the game management and the offense and strategy, and coach (Nate) Yeskie calls the pitches. We’re lined up good.”
Johnson does not want to hold Johnson back even with the Tigers within range of a second national championship in three years.
“Programs should talk to Josh,” Johnson said. “He’s one of the best in the country. I would support him for anything because he’s done a lot for me. He’s one of the best, if not the best, assistant coach I’ve ever had.”
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