re: Louisville SS Gavin Kilen commits to Tennessee

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That’s cool now they’ve got a title too.

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If you are this obsessed, you should just start wearing orange and hoping they can catch up to Vandy and USC soon.

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TV has certainly been more consistent, but this program measures success by national titles. Tony has one in seven seasons.

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And one of the biggest choke jobs in the last 25 years of college baseball in 22. But all of you have conveniently forgotten about that.

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Tenn has been the best overall baseball program the last 5 years.

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Sure, Vitello's really good and will likely be battling Jay at the highest level for the next decade or 2. But like others have pointed out, he's been at Tennessee 7 years and has had time to completely build his program. I mean, before Tennessee just won, you could argue that Arkansas has had the best program of the last 5+ year, but they have nothing to show for it but SEC titles and Omaha appearances. And that's great, but not how coaches are ultimately judged.

Jay's only been at LSU for 3 years and has to get out of this cycle of replacing so many big contributors with portal guys and relying on 2nd and 3rd year program guys with portal additions sprinkled it. It took Vitello 6 or 7 years to build that at Tennessee and he had the "advantage" of beginning it before NIL and the portal were as important as they are now. It's taken Jay a bit longer than he probably hoped to build the program to where he wants it to be, but I have no doubt he'll get there. I'd imagine the 2 programs will be very similar 2 years from now.

There was already too much parity in the SEC for anybody to build an LSU 90s program. Will be even more with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma in the SEC. We'll see how it all plays out. I like the spot LSU is in. Jay and Vitello are about the same age, both fantastic recruiters, and both have had very similar success. I think an intangible advantage LSU does have--that the NC last year was so crucial for relative to maintaining--is that there is a mystic and magic associated with the program, even if the players now weren't alive for the 90s, their parents were and they've heard about it. "The Box" is considered the Mecca of college baseball, and it has nothing to do with how great the amenities are there.

Special things happen there. Special things happen when guys wear the LSU uniform. Winning 7 out of 8 Finals is not normal. It's extraordinary. And a lot of it has to do with the indescribable "magic" LSU players when they're wearing that uniform. It's like a superhero's cape. They are able to do things they shouldn't be capable of at times they shouldn't be capable of. And the opposition is aware, if only subconsciously. As long as that "magic" is in the ether and players are aware of it, some will always want to be a part of it, and we'll get our share of studs.

Tennessee may be in the process of creating that themselves, but they're gonna have to win a few more CWSs to establish it. And their boosters are more than willing to dole it out now while it's fresh and fun. Will that last? LSU fans have a special pride in being the best college baseball program in the country and will continue to support the program no matter what. Now that Tennessee has tasted that success, will the money continue to flow? Probably for a while. If they win again? Or win a 3rd time? Will they keep giving or will the novelty wear off and they start turning their eyes towards football and basketball more and more? Who knows? But the next 10 years of SEC baseball are going to riveting.

But 1 NC is not a great gauge of future success. We've seen Ole Miss and State both win in the last 4 years and turn to shite. Florida has won and is always in the mix, but haven't won again. Vandy was the best program in the SEC less than a decade ago, went on a heater and won a few, now they've taken a big step back with the same coach. Hell, it wasn't that long ago South Carolina went back-to-back.

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Jay's only been at LSU for 3 years and has to get out of this cycle of replacing so many big contributors with portal guys and relying on 2nd and 3rd year program guys with portal additions sprinkled it. It took Vitello 6 or 7 years to build that at Tennessee and he had the "advantage" of beginning it before NIL and the portal were as important as they are now. It's taken Jay a bit longer than he probably hoped to build the program to where he wants it to be, but I have no doubt he'll get there. I'd imagine the 2 programs will be very similar 2 years from now.

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Da hell? Some of his best contributors HAVE BEEN portal guys. It's going to take a balance. You can't rely on guys staying very long. I really don't know what y'all are expecting to happen with today's rules.

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It's taken Jay a bit longer than he probably hoped to build the program to where he wants it to be, but I have no doubt he'll get there.

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Literally just won a championship a season ago. 2 outs away from hosting a favorable Super Regional in a down year after losing so many veteran players. Like WTH.

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There was already too much parity in the SEC for anybody to build an LSU 90s program. Will be even more with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma in the SEC. We'll see how it all plays out. I like the spot LSU is in. Jay and Vitello are about the same age, both fantastic recruiters, and both have had very similar success. I think an intangible advantage LSU does have--that the NC last year was so crucial for relative to maintaining--is that there is a mystic and magic associated with the program, even if the players now weren't alive for the 90s, their parents were and they've heard about it. "The Box" is considered the Mecca of college baseball, and it has nothing to do with how great the amenities are there.

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I agree.

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But 1 NC is not a great gauge of future success. We've seen Ole Miss and State both win in the last 4 years and turn to shite.

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Okay, he did it in only his 2nd season here. He's been to Omaha 3 times within the past 10 years. Not too many can claim that.

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Florida has won and is always in the mix, but haven't won again. Vandy was the best program in the SEC less than a decade ago, went on a heater and won a few, now they've taken a big step back with the same coach. Hell, it wasn't that long ago South Carolina went back-to-back.

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Well yeah, winning it all is difficult. Even Tony V with his greatest team ever got bounced at home.

They have had the same coach for the last 9 years damn some of you people !

George the dip shite! Again Tony has been there for what 9 years now stfu dude !

I view sec champ and tourny champs as nice to haves but would rather the cws. It looks like van horn can’t win in the post season despite winning the sec over and over.

Tony V is elite though and has built a power house

When we got Jay, I would have been happy with getting Tony V

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And yet they only won anything of relevance just this ONE year.
Weird.

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I mean, they've won the SEC and the SEC tournament 2 of the last 3 years and have been to Omaha three out of their last four attempts winning the most recent national championship. Tony Vitello has built a strong program that is in better standing than LSU's currently. It is what it is.

LSU needs to rebound from a poor season last year.

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2 outs away from a super is a “poor season”?

That pretty much tells you where our program is at doesn’t it? Seems like Jay has done a great job rebuilding it.

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Listen. I'm on board with Jay Johnson and think he's doing a great job. However, we can be honest in saying that last year was a poor year. Yes, they were two outs from a super regional. Had they won more than 13 games in the SEC, LSU might have even made a super regional rather than saying "they were two outs away."

They needed to win atleast one game in the SEC Tournament just to gain entry into the NCAA tournament. It was a poor year considering LSU won a national championship in the year prior.

I'm not hating on Jay Johnson and I hope he's able to consistently get LSU to Omaha while hosting regionals and supers. Tony Vitello has his program in that position currently. Jay Johnson is trying to get to that point with LSU.

There's nothing wrong with saying Tony Vitello has built a very strong program at Tennessee. They've won 50 or more games three of the last four years. They won 44 games in 2023 and still made it to and won a game in Omaha. Tennessee has won the SEC and SEC tournament two of the last three years. They've been to Omaha three of the last four years and the year they missed Omaha they were the #1 seed in the tournament and were knocked out in game 3 of the Knoxville Super Regional. There's no lie in saying Tony Vitello has built an incredibly consistent program that will continue to make Omaha.

What we'd like is for Jay Johnson to do the same at LSU. He had an unbelievable season in 2023 and won a national championship. Now it's about putting LSU in a position to get a national seed yearly so they can win more national championships. In two of his three years coaching the team, LSU has had to travel for a regional and lost in the regional they traveled to.

When comparing Jay's first three years at LSU to Paul Mainieri's final three years, of course he's done a good job. He won a national championship in 2023 and had an unbelievable year. That doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement.

And this whole post wasn't even needed in truth. My original post was in response to someone saying Tony Vitello hasnt won anything until this year. The truth of the matter is that Tennessee have won more baseball games over the last 4 years than any other program in the country and each year they've been in position to finally win a National Championship. This year they won it.

Let's hope Jay Johnson is able to put LSU in the same position.