Jay Johnson’s LSU tenure is off to a sensational start, bringing the Tigers’ national championship tally to 8 all-time, with 2 in the last 3 years. In just 4 seasons, Johnson has already established himself as one of the elite SEC coaches in the Big 3 college sports (football, men’s basketball, baseball) by winning multiple national titles.
Let’s put things in Saturday terms. Johnson is racking up natties like a young Urban Meyer. Keep it up, and he enters Nick Saban territory.
As we all know, it’s extremely challenging to win multiple national championships. It’s incredibly rare to win 2 natties in the first 4 seasons. We haven’t seen a Big 3 coach come into the SEC and accomplish so much so quickly since Meyer began his urban renewal of Florida football 20 years ago, winning national championships in Year 2 (2006) and Year 4 (2008).
Some of the most accomplished Big 3 names of the present and recent past in the SEC don’t have 2 in 4 on their resumes. As Alabama’s head coach, Saban needed 3 years for his first with the Tide (2009) and 5 seasons to make it 2 (2011). Kirby Smart needed until Year 6 (2021) at Georgia to get his first, and then promptly made it 2 in Year 7 (2022).
John Calipari led Kentucky to a national championship in Year 3 (2012), but that was the only title of his decorated 15-year tenure in Lexington. Billy Donovan’s 2 Florida basketball national championships came in a back-to-back run during Years 10 and 11 (2006, 2007). (Now Todd Golden will try for his second title entering Year 3.)
And it’s not just a Big 3 thing. In other sports, some of the SEC’s premier active coaches didn’t win 2 titles in their first 4 years, either.
It took Oklahoma’s Patty Gasso until Year 6 to win a Women’s College World Series in 2000. Dawn Staley began her South Carolina tenure in the 2008-09 season and did not hoist the national championship trophy until 2017. Kim Mulkey won her first national title in Year 5 at Baylor (2005). At LSU, Mulkey has won 1 title out of 4 tries.
In baseball, the SEC has now won the last 6 national championships. Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin is the only other active conference baseball coach besides Johnson with 2 national titles (2014, ’19). He got a 19-year head start on Johnson in the SEC, taking the Vandy job in 2003.
Saban, Smart, Calipari, Donovan, Corbin, Gasso, Staley and Mulkey are college coaching heavyweights with rings for days. Many are program builders who needed time to reach the mountain top. Their success just goes to show that 2 in the first 4 is a club as exclusive as it gets.
After Meyer pulled off 2 in 4, he was looking ahead to the future. In the postgame press conference following Florida’s BCS championship win over Oklahoma, Meyer had a simple, memorable message for recruits.
“When you win national championships – the whole country saw that tonight. You’ve got to be out of your mind –you’re out of your freaking mind if you don’t play for the Gators,” Meyer said.
In the first moments after winning his second title, Johnson appeared to have recruiting on his mind. With a national TV audience, Johnson not-so-subtly pitched his program.
“I’m just so proud. This is a team. Our motto for the year was ‘Tough and Together,’ and that’s what they did from Aug. 26 until now. I’m just incredibly proud,” Johnson said in his postgame ABC interview.
“It’s only 12 returning players. It’s 10 players from the transfer portal. It’s 2 JUCO players and 10 freshmen. And that collection of talent not just became a team, but became a family.”
Having just become the fastest college baseball coach to win multiple national championships at one school, Johnson wanted to make sure that every player in the portal heard loud and clear that 12 transfers helped LSU win it all in Omaha. College sports’ elite competitors know that whether it’s high school, JUCO or the portal, recruiting never sleeps. Meyer understood it in 2008. Johnson gets it in 2025.
Repeating is the goal for every national champion, and LSU players were already talking of going for No. 9 before departing Omaha. If Johnson secures a 3rd title, making it 3 in the last 4 seasons (2023-26), we’re talking about a dynasty.
A run of 3 titles in a span of 4 years is even harder than winning 2 natties in the first 4 years. Just ask Meyer, whose Florida squad ran into Saban’s Alabama buzzsaw in 2009 and didn’t get to play for the national title that season, a changing of the guard in college football.
And the college baseball postseason is no cakewalk, even for the most talented teams. One weekend of going cold at the plate or the ace having an off day and everything can go down the drain. It takes careful management of a pitching staff and pushing the right buttons in the lineup card to make it through Regionals, Super Regionals and the College World Series with only isolated losses.
It’s been over 50 years since college baseball has seen a team win 3 titles over a 4-season stretch. In the history of the College World Series, only 9 programs have even won 3 or more titles: Oregon State (3), Minnesota (3), Cal State Fullerton (4), Miami (4), Arizona (4), Arizona State (5), Texas (6), LSU (8) and USC (12).
Three national titles in 4 seasons has eluded every baseball program except USC. The Trojans’ titles span 1948-1998, but it was the 1960s and ’70s when they dominated the sport, winning 9 of their 12 titles, including 6 from 1968-74, only missing 1969.
As Tiger fans know, LSU is the only program with a run that compares to USC’s decades of dominance. The legendary Skip Bertman led the Tigers to 5 national titles from 1991-2000, going back-to-back in 1996-97 as well as title wins in 1991, ’93 and 2000. Bertman maintains a presence around the LSU baseball program, which is fully embraced by Johnson, who beams about getting to spend time at the ballpark with the legendary coach.
In 2026, Johnson will try to make LSU the first college baseball team to win back-to-back national championships since Ray Tanner’s South Carolina squad in 2010 and ’11. If Johnson pulls that, the SEC has its first Big 3 dynasty since Saban at Alabama.
Jay Johnson is off to the best start for a Big 3 SEC coach since Urban Meyer. Can he reach Nick Saban territory? Saturday Down South.
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