As rival Georgia celebrated an SEC title, a frustrated Jay Johnson cleared the dugout for a raw, player-only summit to address the Tigers' historic mid-season collapse.
It was another frustrating loss on Saturday afternoon for the LSU Tigers, as they fell 13-8 to the Georgia Bulldogs, and Jay Johnson wanted to try something out on the field after the game.
Per The Advocate's Koki Riley, Johnson spent around 30 to 40 minutes on the field after the game with all of the players and no assistant coaches. The serious, success-driven baseball coach has gotten tired of the product that the team has been putting out.
It was as the Bulldogs celebrated winning both the series and, more importantly, the SEC regular-season championship. A wonderful year for Wes Johnson, who came to Georgia after being Jay's pitching coach during the 2023 championship run. They improved to 40-11 after this game.
About the meeting, Jay Johnson had the following to say, also per Riley: "Just as a competitor, it bothers me. It bothers me that somebody else wins the championship and we don't."
With this loss, LSU fell to 29-23 on the season and 9-17 in conference play. There is a good chance that this season finishes as the worst since 2014 (not counting the shortened 2020 season) when he coached the Never Wolfpack. The Tigers went 43-23 in 2024 and the Arizona Wildcats went 32-24 in 2019, those were the two worst.
The losing getting to him is very understanding, especially given how they are losing these games. The past two have been frustrating for completely different reasons.
In the first game, LSU got out to a 7-3 lead and then watched as it fell apart in the second half. In the second game, the Bulldogs took advantage of the young pitching and got out to a 8-0 lead in the second inning. Both have been consistent issues for the Tigers this year.