Arizona baseball: Wildcats set to hire Nevada head coach Jay Johnson

It seems we finally have a new head baseball coach.

It seems the new head baseball coach at the University of Arizona will be Nevada's Jay Johnson.

Wanted to congratulate Jay Johnson the new head coach at University of Arizona. Well deserved,

— Frank Mutz (@sweetsmanager39) June 7, 2015

Johnson has only been at Nevada for two seasons, and won the Mountain West regular season title this year before the Wolf Pack were taken out in the conference tournament.

After a 31-17 overall record in 2014, Nevada improved to 41-15 in 2015, going 22-7 in the Mountain West.

Before arriving at Nevada, Johnson was the associate head coach at the University of San Diego for eight years. He served as the team's hitting coach and recruiting coordinator, and was responsible for the top recruiting class in the country in 2008. The 2010 class was ranked second in the country, and included new Chicago Cubs star Kris Bryant.

BREAKING: Arizona has hired Nevada's Jay Johnson as its new head coach. He's got tons of Arizona connections from days as USD recruiter.

— Aaron Fitt (@aaronfitt) June 7, 2015

Johnson also helped Kris Bryant develop at USD, then turned Nevada into a contender in short order. Charismatic guy, teaches HITTING well

— Aaron Fitt (@aaronfitt) June 7, 2015

Johnson also found success at NAIA Point Loma Nazarene in 2005 as the head coach, ranking sixth in all of NAIA. As an assistant at PLN in 2004, the Sea Lions finished third in the NAIA World Series.

Bringing in an offensive guy kind of goes against the direction everyone thought Greg Byrne would go, with several guys with primarily pitching coach experience were the initial frontrunners.

Be sure to read this piece on Johnson. It seems that he graduated high school in 1996, making him 37 or 38 years old.

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