Coach Jay Johnson finds his second full-time assistant by hiring Dan Fitzgerald to be LSU Baseball’s Recruiting Coordinator.
Fitzgerald spent the last nine season at Dallas Baptist University (DBU) and established himself as one of the nation’s top college baseball recruiters.
“I am incredibly excited to hire Dan Fitzgerald as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for LSU Baseball,” Johnson said. “Simply put, Dan is one of the top assistant coaches in the country, and he will have a huge impact on our program for years to come. Dan is one of the elite recruiters in the country, and his ability to find and evaluate elite talent will serve future Tiger teams very well.”
In the last five years, 14 of Fitzgerald’s signees at Dallas Baptist have been selected in the MLB Draft. Eleven of his 30 drafted signees have been chosen in the Top 10 rounds.
In a survey done by Baseball America in 2020, Fitzgerald was rated No. 7 on a list of assistant coaches from across the nation that will one day make the best head coach.
“Dan is an elite coach, and he did a terrific job at Dallas Baptist of developing some of the best players in college baseball and helping them move on to the Major League Baseball Draft and professional baseball,” Johnson said. “That will continue here, as he contributes to our mission of pursuing championships and developing future Major League players. Dan is an outstanding person, and his character and work ethic will positively impact our players for years to come. This is another great day for LSU Baseball.”
What’s more impressive is that Fitzgerald has done this at a small school like DBU; a campus not much larger than the public high schools in the surrounding Dallas area and where team bible study is mandatory on top of academics.
Needles to say, LSU will be a bit of a culture shock.
But Fitzgerald will now have to change his recruiting strategy from trying to convince recruits to say ‘yes’ to learning how to tell some recruits ‘no’.