Beasts Of Southeast: Louisiana State Enters 2023 Season As Prohibitive Favorite In College Baseball

Image credit: Tommy White, Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews (Mike Janes/Four Seam Images)

Atop the right field bleachers at Alex Box Stadium stands “The Intimidator,” a full-size billboard that looms over the outfield. A snarling tiger head dominates the right half of the sign, while the rest is emblazoned by the  all-caps “NATIONAL CHAMPIONS” and the six years the Tigers won the College World Series: 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000 and 2009.

The Intimidator symbolizes many things at once. It stands as a monument to Louisiana State’s dominant position in the sport. Only Southern California has won more national titles than LSU, and only one of its 12 titles (1998) has come since the Tigers won their first. It is what its name suggests, an intimidating force for LSU’s opponents, letting them know that they have entered the home of college baseball royalty. It is also perhaps unwittingly an ever-present reminder to the Tigers of what is expected.

At LSU, Omaha is not the goal, it is an expectation, and national championships are the standard by which the program is measured.

Into this cauldron step the 2023 Tigers and second-year coach Jay Johnson. They are the top-ranked team in the Preseason Top 25 and represent the program’s best chance in the last five years of adding to its championship haul.

LSU’s collection of talent is dizzying. It features a trio of players who were All-Americans a year ago: outfielder Dylan Crews, the 2022 co-Southeastern Conference player of the year and the early favorite to be the No. 1 draft pick this summer; two-way standout Paul Skenes, a two-time All-American; and third baseman Tommy White, the 2022 Freshman of the Year. First baseman Tre’ Morgan is a Preseason All-American and a two-time member of the all-SEC defensive team. 

The Tigers’ traditional recruiting class ranked No. 1 in the nation after they brought in more top-500 draft prospects than any other team, and their class of transfers— headlined by Skenes and White—also ranked No. 1 nationally.

LSU is also a team uniquely of this moment in college sports. Last year, the Tigers were a 40-win team that fell one win shy of a super regional appearance. They were slated to return Crews, Morgan and a handful of other regulars from a team that played well and overcame some bad injury luck in Johnson’s first season in Baton Rouge. That core, plus a typically strong recruiting class, would have made for a highly compelling 2023 season.

“Over the summer Jay did a lot in the transfer portal,” Skenes said. “Even if none of us came, this team would still have a lot of hype because of Dylan and Tre’ and some of the arms that we have.”

But all the changes that have hit college baseball in the last few years—the influx of money into the game, the extra year of eligibility for players who were affected by the cancellation of the 2020 season due to the pandemic, the one-time transfer exception making player movement easier, and the rule changes allowing players to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL) rights while in college—helped make it possible for LSU to build this roster loaded with premium talent.

The hype surrounding the Tigers has been building for more than seven months now, driven by a confluence of factors—the superstar talent, the excitement of transactions previously only seen in professional free agency and a No. 1 recruiting class all coming together at one of the sport’s bluest bloods. The result is perhaps the most anticipated team and season of college baseball.

So, how did the Tigers get to this point? How did Johnson win the offseason and assemble the nation’s most talented roster?

***

Dylan Crews was just a freshman at Lake Mary (Fla.) High in the fall of 2016 when Matt Gerber, who ran the travel-ball Orlando Scorpions, called Nolan Cain, then LSU’s newly promoted recruiting coordinator. Gerber told Cain that Crews was the best player he’d ever had. That conversation was the start of LSU’s involvement with Crews. He visited LSU later that school year and committed in 2017.

But securing the commitment of an elite player like Crews is only the starting point in baseball. For some time, it looked like Crews would never make it to campus. He spent much of his prep career ranked as one of the top players in the 2020 class. He was still seen as a potential first-round pick in the fall of his senior year. But coming off an unimpressive summer on the showcase circuit, Crews faced more questions than ever. He might have answered them with a strong spring, but the pandemic cut the season short.

A week before the 2020 draft, Crews formally opted out of the event. He wanted to play for the Tigers, wanted to develop in college and prove himself. He called coach Paul Mainieri to tell him he was coming to campus, a phone call that sparked celebrations in Baton Rouge.

Much has changed in the six years since the ball first got rolling on Crews’ college recruitment. Gerber has moved on from the Scorpions. Mainieri retired in 2021 and Cain left his alma mater that year to take over as recruiting coordinator at Texas A&M. But that fateful phone call, Crews’ recruitment and his eventual arrival in Baton Rouge serve as a cornerstone for the 2023 Tigers.

Crews was the headliner of LSU’s 2020 recruiting class, which ranked No. 2 in the nation. The class also included righthander Ty Floyd, one of the top prep pitchers to make it to college; Morgan, a relatively unknown prospect from New Orleans; and shortstop Jordan Thompson, a hard-nosed player from California.

For all the fanfare about this year’s newcomers, that class remains LSU’s core. Crews and Morgan are Preseason All-Americans and rank as top 50 draft prospects. Floyd projects to be in LSU’s rotation and Thompson is back for a third season at shortstop.

Those players, now juniors, have been at the heart of everything LSU has done since they arrived at LSU. They stepped right into the mix for the Tigers as freshmen and have kept producing, even while the program has gone through extensive turnover. Johnson has been able to build around them while planning and recruiting since he took the job in June 2021, following Mainieri’s retirement.

***

The end of May is a hectic time in college baseball. For the 64 teams that remain on the road to Omaha following Selection Monday, preparations for the postseason get underway immediately and in earnest. But for the nearly 250 other teams in Division I, the season has come to an end, and exit interviews are quickly conducted before players head to summer ball and coaches turn the page to recruiting and planning for next season. At the same time, the coaching market gets supercharged, as programs start making moves.

With the rule change two years ago that eliminated the requirement for baseball players—as well as football, men’s and women’s basketball and hockey players, bringing those sports into alignment with every other sport under the NCAA umbrella—to sit out a year after transferring, that part of the calendar has only gotten busier. Now, every player can consider entering the transfer portal and make a move knowing they can make an immediate impact at their new school, and every coach constantly is monitoring the portal for new entrants.

When North Carolina State was surprisingly left out of the NCAA Tournament field last year, the Wolfpack moved into offseason mode. Later that week, star freshman Tommy White entered the transfer portal.

White’s decision to transfer was college baseball’s most surprising move yet under the new rule. He had just broken the Division I freshman record for home runs (27) and would later be named Freshman of the Year. He said the decision to leave North Carolina State was the hardest he’s ever made.

“It wasn’t just baseball,” he said. “I love (coach) Elliott (Avent), (assistant coach Chris) Hart, all the players—I have so much love for them. School was great. I just felt like I needed something new, I guess you could say.”

When White hit the portal, LSU was in Hattiesburg, Miss., getting ready to open the postseason against Kennesaw State. The Tigers knew they would be losing Jacob Berry and Cade Doughty, who ranked second and third on the team in OPS, to the draft, and Johnson could think of no better replacement than White. That day, the LSU staff got White’s phone number and Johnson made an initial contact.

The following week, Johnson went to White’s home in Florida to meet with the slugger. His pitch to White focused on being a part of a strong, close-knit team and on the opportunity to develop as both a hitter and defender. The success of Berry, who like White had mostly been a DH as a freshman before becoming LSU’s everyday third baseman as a sophomore, was a useful example for Johnson to deploy. White agreed to take a visit to Baton Rouge.

“(Johnson) came to the house and he said everything I wanted to hear and more,” White said. “So, I took a visit here to LSU and met some of the guys like Gavin Dugas and Alex Milazzo and felt like this could be a good home for me.”

White committed to LSU on June 24, three weeks after he had entered the portal. On the same day, the Tigers also landed righthander Christian Little (Vanderbilt). Shortstop Carter Young (Vanderbilt) committed June 27. LSU added righthander Thatcher Hurd (UCLA), whom Johnson had recruited to Arizona, on June 29.

LSU and Johnson weren’t done. All-American righthander/catcher Paul Skenes hit the portal in the aftermath of Air Force’s loss in the Austin Regional. Johnson had moved quickly to contact him, initially reaching out to Skenes in the aftermath of LSU’s own season-ending loss to Southern Mississippi in the Hattiesburg Regional final.

“We were crushed. We gave it everything we had, (but) we fell a little short,” Johnson said. “I thought, ‘The only way I’ll feel better from this is to try to do something to make us better,’ so I picked up the phone and called (Skenes).”

Skenes in some respects was another shocking portal entrant because two-time All-Americans don’t typically transfer. But his situation at Air Force and with MLB ultimately forced his hand. Military academy rules stipulate that once a student begins a third year in school, they are required to uphold the five-year military commitment that comes with their education. Meanwhile, to be eligible for the MLB draft, a player at a four-year school must either be 21 years old or three years out of high school. Skenes, who will turn 21 in May, met neither requirement.

That left Skenes with a choice between transferring to allow him to more freely pursue a baseball career or staying at the Academy and likely giving up several seasons of baseball to serve in the Air Force.

“I didn’t want to leave Air Force, to be honest,” Skenes said. “If I were a sophomore draft guy, this wouldn’t even be an issue.

“I made the decision that I needed to transfer and go somewhere else to give myself the best opportunity to play professional baseball.”

Skenes’ recruitment played out much slower than LSU’s other transfers. He hadn’t been a prominent recruit in high school and had wanted to go to serve in the military anyway, so he was focused on attending Air Force or Navy. Now given the opportunity to more thoroughly explore his options, he did so with diligence, making an initial list of five schools that continued to expand during the summer. He also played for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team, which included a trip to the Netherlands for a tournament, further slowing his process.

In the end, LSU won Skenes over and he committed on July 28. He was impressed by how Johnson and the rest of the staff cared for players and had the best environment for him to develop as a player.

 

***

Work on LSU’s 2022 recruiting class began years ago, really picking up steam in the summer and fall of 2019 when the players were going into their sophomore years of high school. During that period, the Tigers picked up commitments from players like catchers Jared Jones and Brady Neal (then a 2023 graduate), righthander Michael Kennedy, outfielder Paxton Kling and infielder Tucker Toman.

Some of those players had grown up dreaming of playing in Alex Box Stadium. Others were just looking for the best fit for the next level.

Kling, a Pennsylvania native, said he was first introduced to LSU baseball by his father, who remembered watching the great Tigers teams in the 1990s. Kling was quickly taken by the program himself and committed.

“I was just trying to play whatever game I can, just be a kid,” Kling said. “One thing that got me into LSU was my dad. He saw the ’90s teams and everything. He knew LSU is a great place to be, so he always pushed LSU to me, so I was like, ‘I’ll trust that.’ I came to visit when I was a sophomore and then I loved it.”

By the time Mainieri announced his retirement in 2021, LSU had assembled a strong recruiting class. But the staff change meant that the commits lost the bonds and trust that had been built during the recruiting process. Now, Johnson and his staff had to build their own relationships, while also evaluating the class to see what it still needed and how it might fare in the draft.

Some players decommitted, wanting to fully evaluate their options as they got to know the new staff. Kling was among the decommitments, calling Johnson to let him know he would reopen his recruitment about a week after he had been hired. Johnson told Kling he understood and wished him good luck before calling him back a few minutes later to tell him he was still interested and would work to get him back to LSU.

A few months later, Kling returned to Baton Rouge for a visit and again found himself struck by the experience.

“As soon as I got back here, I fell in love with it again,” Kling said. “The atmosphere, LSU, Alex Box, went to a game, saw the fans and everything. I had a relationship with coach Johnson and the current staff that was here, so I trusted in that and committed back here.”

That’s how it went with most of the players from the class Johnson inherited. He and the staff were able to win them over and keep them committed to the Tigers, while continuing to add to the class.

Johnson added players like righthander Micah Bucknam, outfielder Justin Crawford, righthander Jaden Noot and shortstop Mikey Romero, as well as some high-end junior college transfers in lefthander Nate Ackenhausen and righthander Kaleb Applebey. By signing day in November, the recruiting class had become a monster. It ranked a close No. 2 behind Vanderbilt, but its depth and potential was clear.

Signing a class like that was one thing, getting it to campus would be another. Any elite baseball recruiting class will have to fend off the draft and this one was no different. So, in the weeks leading up to the draft last July, Johnson spent a lot of time talking to the commits and their families about the process.

“We did a good job with all of them laying out where you should sign and what’s the line with where you should come to college and develop,” Johnson said. “We’re in a really good spot with that. We gave these freshmen a lot of confidence that we can help them to go where they want to go.”

The week of the draft, Johnson traveled to Arizona to watch the event with Berry and his family. The Marlins drafted Berry sixth overall, making him the highest drafted college position player, and once Johnson had finished giving hugs and high fives, he retreated to his hotel room to monitor the rest of the draft and work the phones some more.

LSU had gotten good news going into the draft when Kling formally removed his name from consideration. But there was still plenty of reason to be nervous about which and how many recruits the Tigers would lose. The first off the board was Crawford, who went 17th overall to the Phillies, and Romero followed at No. 24 to the Red Sox. By the end of the first night, five LSU commits had been drafted.

While the draft was happening, the class of 2022 group chat was active, congratulating the drafted players and wishing them luck. But they also were keeping track of who hadn’t been picked and starting to get excited about what they could do together in Baton Rouge.

“You’re excited for the guys who don’t get drafted because you know you’ll have guys coming in with you to hopefully win a College World Series and go to Omaha,” infielder Gavin Guidry said. “The more guys you have here who are top-tier talent, the better chance you’ll have to do that.”

The Tigers would lose one more commit the following day, but the whole class was so deep that even with those losses, they still ended up with the top-ranked recruiting class.

“Once the whole thing was completed, I felt good about where the roster was at,” Johnson said. “I felt like we could develop a plan for each of them individually.”

***

No team this offseason had more success than LSU. The Tigers easily landed the top-ranked transfer class. They brought in the top two transfers and three of the top five in White, Skenes and Hurd. They navigated the draft to end up with the top-ranked traditional recruiting class and the most top 500 draft prospects in the country. They held onto more of their own players than was expected, because players like Dugas and Floyd are back on campus despite having been draft-eligible.

Making that performance all the more impressive is that Johnson did it while resetting his coaching staff. In the 10 days following the end of LSU’s 2022 season with a loss in the Hattiesburg Regional final, both recruiting coordinator Dan Fitzgerald (Kansas) and pitching coach Jason Kelly (Washington) were hired away to be head coaches. Johnson made the decision to prioritize making moves for the roster over hiring new assistant coaches, but that left him operating largely alone for much of June.

Even in reassembling his coaching staff, Johnson brought in elite talent. In a stunning move, he hired Wes Johnson away from the Minnesota Twins on June 26. The hire was surprising enough for the fact that a sitting MLB pitching coach took the same job with a college team, but also that it was completed in the middle of the season. Jay Johnson had previously approached Wes Johnson about the move a year prior, when he first got to LSU. But Wes Johnson was not yet ready to leave the major leagues. It was a different story last summer.

When Jay Johnson called again, Wes Johnson was ready to listen. He had come up as a college pitching coach, working at Dallas Baptist, Mississippi State and Arkansas before going to the Twins. His family missed college baseball and he missed some of the developmental opportunities that come from coaching players who are still early in their development. It wasn’t an easy decision, but he decided it was time to return to the college game.

“You sit back, and you say, ‘If I’m going to leave the big leagues, what am I going to do?’ ” Wes Johnson said. “LSU has things in place. There’s no guarantees in life, but what chance do you have on paper to be extremely competitive, get to Omaha and have a chance to win the national title? In my mind this was the best place.

“I had circled the (SEC). This place always seemed to be right there. So when Jay called again, it was like, ‘OK.’ ”

Wes Johnson accepted the job shortly after Mississippi won the national championship and dogpiled in Omaha. Perhaps only the Rebels had a better summer than the Tigers.

Hiring Wes Johnson was a strong statement by LSU. It reiterated the seriousness of the program to be able to hire away an MLB coach and served as an endorsement of Alex Box Stadium as the place to be in college baseball. It also gave LSU’s pitchers an opportunity to be coached by someone who has an intimate understanding of what it takes to be successful at the highest level of baseball.

A couple weeks later, Johnson rounded out the coaching staff by hiring recruiting coordinator Josh Jordan away from Duke. Jordan, the 2018 Assistant Coach of the Year, played an important role in helping build Duke from a college baseball afterthought into a consistent regional team.

Working without a pair of assistant coaches isn’t an easy position, but Johnson said after taking over three programs in an eight-year span—Nevada, Arizona and LSU—it was a familiar one. He simply went to work to fill the holes on the roster and on the staff.

“It was very much like a first year again and starting the program over almost,” Johnson said. “We need what we need, and we have to work to go get it. It was a lonely office for about four weeks.”

***

Former LSU All-American and current Astros star third baseman Alex Bregman introduced Johnson at LSU’s First Pitch Banquet in January, telling him, “Let’s go win a national championship, coach.” Such is the expectation around the Tigers this spring.

Having built a team that looks like a behemoth, Johnson now must guide the Tigers through the hype, the expectations and the inevitable disappointment and questions when LSU loses a game or a series.

But the Tigers aren’t looking to run from the expectations or hype. They all are in Baton Rouge to chase a national championship, and Johnson wants them to embrace the challenge.

“We’re running toward the fight,” he said.

And the fight will be there. As good as LSU is on paper, it will face a daunting challenge in the SEC and, especially, in the SEC West. The Tigers are used to getting every team’s best shot, but that will be even more true this year, as they start the season with the No. 1 ranking for the first time since 1996.

The way the Tigers were built also stands to make them villains in some observers’ eyes. So much player movement through the transfer portal is still new and uncomfortable for many, who view it as a form of free agency in a system that has long operated under more restrictive rules for player movement. Combine that with NIL and rumors and anger can run deep.

Johnson has a clear answer for anyone who would suggest that LSU bought its roster.

“My response to it is pretty simple,” Johnson said. “Offering an NIL deal as a recruiting inducement is an NCAA violation, and I’m not into committing NCAA violations.”

Constructing the roster was just the start. Now, the real fun starts for the Tigers. They will open the season on Feb. 17 against Western Michigan. They hope to end it four months later in a dogpile at Charles Schwab Field.

The journey from Opening Day to the final out in Omaha is a long one, and even a team as talented as LSU is certain to face difficult tests along the way. 

But no matter how the season goes, the Tigers will be must-watch. The talent, the personalities, the expectations and the electric atmosphere at Alex Box Stadium will have college baseball calling Baton Rouge all spring.