Name one thing you hope for LSU baseball in 2027 outside of a national championship

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I hope we have pitchers that throw strikes and catchers that can catch the strikes.

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100% this

Just cleaner baseball.

Better pitching meaning less free passes!

Damn man you are dong obsessed

The subject of every thread you post is that you want to see more dongs

Better pitchers, right now all of them suck...ALL OF THEM!!!

not KNOWING were about to a lose a game we have a 5 run lead in simply cause we went to the bullpen

Win most of the one-run games

Hosting a regional & super regional

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a belief we can win any game no matter if we are winning or losing.

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This is big for me. There’s a magic in the Box, a magic in the LSU uniforms that has allowed us to win several games over the years where it looked like it was over. Same for having big leads—we tended to always close those out. This team was never able to tap into that.

And it’s not real “magic,” it obviously, but it was an innate confidence that our players have seemed to have when they put on that uniform. Because of all the players that had come before them. And it affects the other teams too when they see “LSU” in the opposing dugout.

Now, in today’s landscape, where talent is more spread out, that latter effect—intimidating the other teams—is probably not gonna be nearly as big of a deal as it was 10-20 years ago, but against some teams, it still happens. We routinely over the years have seen lesser teams with late leads start shitting all over themselves in the 8th and 9th innings. Walking people, kicking the ball around, throwing balls into the dugout, etc…

Again, it’s not 1997. The playing field is more level, so I don’t expect that “magic” to happen as often. But it still should occasionally. But this 2026 team never showed anything that would have inspired confidence in themselves or intimidation in the other teams. In fact, it was the exact opposite. No team ever felt they were out of any game. It seemed like THEY were the teams with confidence that they would eventually get to us or that we would shite all over ourselves.

And it was about the collective personalities of the roster. It was so poorly put together. The players weren’t good enough baseball players, but they’ve seemed pretty passive all year, unconfident, and just lacked “dawgs.” Guidry was the only guy with that mindset and it’s impossible for a relief pitcher with an ERA over 8 to be that kind of leader for the whole team. It has to be a position player or 2. Like Dickinson or Bear last year. Or starting pitchers. Anderson and Eyanson were those kind of demonstrably competitive “dawgs” whose energy fed the whole team.

The benefit of not making a regional is that Jay has more time to spend on recruiting out of the portal. Some guys will be just so obviously good that they are automatic takes. But the others he needs to not only evaluate their film highlights, but watch how they carry themselves when they’re not at the plate, how they communicate without the ball, do they lift their teammates up, do they give off an positive energy that’s contagious. It might be hard to catch that watching entire games from the tv broadcast. But talk to as many people as possible about them and their mental makeups. Their high school coaches, coaches that coached against them, their teammates, parents of their teammates, etc…And hopefully get to shake their hands and look them in the eyes in person and talk to them long enough to get an feel for them. Everything was so rushed last year. He didn’t have time to do a lot of vetting on their personalities. Had to rely on highlights tape, phone calls to fewer people who really knew them and would give an honest assessment of how they carried themselves. You can be a “rah rah” guy or a quiet guy who carries himself with an obvious quiet confidence. You just can’t be a wallflower who looks like they’re scared of the ball being hit to them. Or one with a ton of production, but most of that was done in the 1st six innings or in games that weren’t close. How do they produce in the 7th-9th innings in close games. He wouldn’t have to do a lot of that for SEC guys he’s actually coached against and has seen up close and in person, but unfortunately, with just about every SEC teams now pouring more and more money into NIL, we’re not seeing the top guys in the league looking to transfer. They’ll get the same money from the schools they’re already at. Or close enough to not be able to justify leaving.

Sorry, I meant to make a quick comment on “bringing back the magic” of LSU baseball. But ran on way too long about just how to do that.

Tl;dr—We need to bring back the magic of LSU baseball where putting on that uniform makes our guys feel invincible. And seeing it in the opposite dugout intimidates other teams. And we can only do that by having at least a handful of guys who are ultra competitive and confident. Not just productive. So hopefully Jay has enough time in the coming portal to window to more thoroughly vet personalities, not just production. And going forward, even if we make the CWS Final again and he is pressed for time, will prioritize that more. I think he will. And this season will wind up being a blessing in disguise and will make the program better long term.