Wes Johnson’s trip to Pensacola, Fla., before the NCAA Regionals last year was part business and part celebratory.

The LSU pitching coach was in town for an engagement party for his daughter, Anna, and met up with Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks who was looking for someone to take the Bulldogs’ baseball program to the next level. They had already talked via Zoom.

Johnson wasn’t sure he had landed the job after the late May airport interview.

“Here’s the way I am in life with everything, right, you put your head down,” Johnson said sitting in his UGA office late last week as his team geared up for his debut as Georgia coach with a three-game series with UNC Asheville starting Friday at 3 p.m. “You go in there and tell him who you are, what you’re about and they either like it or they don’t. …I felt good after because they know who I am. They know what I’m about.”

Brooks turned to the 52-year old Sherwood, Ark., native to take over a program that last reached an NCAA Super Regional in 2008 and was coming off a 29-27 season including 11-19 in the SEC.

Johnson was pitching coach at three SEC programs, most recently for last season’s LSU national championship team, and also brought MLB experience as pitching coach with the Minnesota Twins from 2019-22.

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Johnson attacked a roster makeover with a pivotal building block in preseason All-American first baseman/outfielder Charlie Condon, a player Johnson thought was the best right-handed hitter his pitchers saw last season.

Johnson’s first Georgia team includes 17 transfers and 10 freshmen.

“He has just been a jolt of energy and that’s an understatement to what he brings every day to the job,” Brooks told the Georgia athletic board last month at its winter meeting. “In a short amount time this summer he transformed our recruiting class.”

The 2024 recruiting class was ranked No. 7 by Collegiate Baseball.

“When you go to the portal, you can’t build your foundation,” Johnson said. “You’re coming in to do a quick home improvement. I wanted more balance. I wanted more right and left handed options.”

Wes Johnson preaches consistency with Georgia Bulldogs

Shortstop Kolby Branch, who hit .325 with 6 home runs and 41 RBI last season as a freshman at Baylor, said he was attracted to Georgia because of Johnson and assistant Will Coggin.

“He’s ready to take the next step and hit the ground running,” Branch said. “His use of analytics, it’s just an easier time in baseball to be great. He preaches that all the time. It’s all about how you can wake up and be great each day. Don’t look back on the setbacks or the failures. Look at what you did great.”

Johnson said when establishing the culture at Georgia, he preached consistency.

“You look at our game, and that’s what wins,” he said. “The guys who show up and are consistent and are the same guys every day and you know what you’re getting, it gives you the opportunity to fill out a lineup card a little better. And you’re able to put guys in position to be able to succeed.”

That lineup card will be heavily dependent on matchups, Johnson said, with some players penciled in primarily against lefthanders and others just against righthanders.

“We’re going to play a lot of different players in a lot of different roles,” he said.

What Georgia baseball lineup may look like

Johnson wanted to be strong up the middle and believes it will be, particularly defensively.

It starts with catcher Fernando Gonzalez. Johnson didn’t know if he would turn pro last summer.

Baylor transfer Kolby Branch is expected to start at shortstop and Purdue transfer Paul Totz at second base with Texas Tech left-handed hitting transfer Dillon Carter in centerfield.

Condon could see time at first, third and all three outfield spots, Johnson said.

The 6-foot-6, 216-pounder led Georgia last year as a redshirt freshman hitting .386 with 25 home runs and 67 RBI.

“For what he’s able to do, he’s a once-every-10 years kind of player, man,” Johnson said.

Mississippi State transfer Slate Alford can play third or second base. Clayton Chadwick (Sam Houston State), John Marant (College of Central Florida) and Dylan Goldstein (Florida Atlantic) give Johnson options at the corner outfield spots. Josh Stinson also was in the outfield mix before being sidelined a couple of weeks with a hand injury.

Returnee Corey Collins, freshman Tre Phelps (Georgia Premier Academy) and Lukas Farris (Western Kentucky) will also see time at first base.

“We’ve got pieces all around the place,” Branch said. “So much flexibility….From a hitter’s presepctive, it’s a fast-break offense. We have a lot of hitters who can do a lot of things.”

It’s a lineup designed for power, Johnson said, to take advantage of Foley Field’s short right field and a park where the ball can carry to left field.

“Wes, he just preaches confidence,” said Stinson, a fifth-year senior who started seven games last year. “That’s what you need playing baseball. It’s a game where you’re going to fail a lot and Wes goes into that, it’s all about preparation. It’s not really results oriented. …He’s been around the game a long time. He’s seen what success looks like.”

Georgia ranked second to last in the SEC in ERA last season at 6.44 and pitching remains its biggest question mark. Johnson is prepared to mix and match on the mound.

The starting pitchers should include the likes of Charlie Goldstein, George Mason transfer Christian Mracna, Penn transfer Brian Zeldin, Jarvis Evans and Leighton Finley.

Johnson leans heavily on analytics which means he may go with a starter for only four or five innings.

“We’re going to have to Tampa Bay Ray it,” Johnson said with a laugh. “Hopefully we can get the outcome they got. You can look up and we could be running openers every other weekend, right? You hope you don’t have to, you hope somebody shows you they can go.”

Johnson said five newcomers have gone five or more innings in a college game the last two years.

Wes Johnson not afraid for Georgia Bulldogs to think Omaha

Johnson’s interaction with Georgia baseball alums in his eight months on the job shows him they are passionate to add more numbers on the left field wall.

That’s where the program’s six College World Series appearances are listed, the last from 2008.

Former MLB infielder Gordon Beckham, who helped lead Georgia to the CWS in 2006 and 2008, visited recently and told Johnson that the Bulldogs need to keep more top in-state prospects at home.

Johnson nearly won a second CWS title in 2018 when Arkansas was national runner-up.

He’s talked to his players about getting to Omaha, the site of the CWS.

“I tell our guys all the time, if your dreams aren’t scaring you then they’re not big enough,” Johnson said. “How do you get a team ready for that? You’ve got to start talking about it.”

By the time Georgia reaches the SEC tournament in Hoover and he hopes the NCAA tournament, he wants a gritty bunch for nine innings or longer if need be.

“We play to the last out, no matter what,” Johnson said. “On both sides of the baseball. At the end of the year, that’s what I want.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: What Georgia baseball coach Wes Johnson wants to see from his first team