The story of LSU’s 2025 national championship team can be boiled down to just three words: Kade and Anthony.
The 1-2 punch of Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson was the best starting tandem in the country,
and maybe even the best in LSU’s storied history. The Tigers went a combined 31-6 when Anderson and Eyanson started and the duo finished first and third respectively in the country in strikeouts.
When the games mattered most, Anderson and Eyanson were at their best. Anderson in particular was dominant in Omaha, throwing a total of 17 innings in two College World Series starts and went out on the highest of highs with a complete game shutout in Game 1 of the national championship series.
But just as we only got one year of Paul Skenes, we also only got one season of Anderson and Eyanson and now the Tigers will have to replace them both. Fortunately they’ll bring back a bunch of rising sophomores that are primed to seize the opportunity.
*At Kansas
As I’m writing this on late Tuesday night, Jay Johnson has not yet announced the rotation for the season-opening series against Milwaukee. That said, I feel like we can go ahead and pencil in Casan Evans as the Friday night starter, and Cooper Moore is almost definitely going to be the Saturday starter.
Evans had a tremendous freshman season and absolutely saved LSU’s season in the NCAA Tournament. With LSUS trailing 5-1 against Little Rock in the Baton Rouge Regional Championship Game, Evans entered the game in the second inning and, to borrow a Skip Bertman phrase, held the rope. Evans pitched six masterful innings where he struck out 12, including nine straight. Forget making it to Omaha, LSU doesn’t even get out of its own regional if Evans doesn’t put on the Superman cape.
Evans first burst on the scene as a top-tier bullpen weapon, and was credited with seven saves last season. He got his first ever start against Tennessee and was excellent: six innings, two runs, six hits, and six strikeouts. After that, Evans got starts against Texas A&M and Arkansas…those didn’t go so well. In those two outings, Evans gave up a combined 10 hits, five earned runs, and had an even 6:6 walk-to-strikeout ratio and didn’t get out of the fourth in either start.
Undeterred, Evans appeared three times out of the pen in the NCAA Tournament: the aforementioned game against Little Rock, closed out the CWS opener against Omaha, and got the start against UCLA in the game that had to be delayed because of weather. Legends are made in May and June round these parts and this was Evans over three postseason appearances: 11.1 innings, nine hits, three runs, 18 strikeouts and three walks. That sounds like a Friday night guy to me, and more importantly, LSU ought to have their ace for this season and next.
Jobs are earned not given out for free, but let’s be real: Cooper Moore didn’t leave Kansas, where he was the Jayhawks’ Friday night starter, to not be in the weekend rotation at LSU. Moore has experience starting at the Power 4, and was a second-team All-Big 12 selection last season. He’s going to start and he’ll probably be very effective doing so.
Moore went 7-3 last season at Kansas and while he’s not going to overpower people (fastball sitting 91-93) he throws strikes. Consider this: Moore and Evans each walked 19 batters last season, but Moore threw 35 more innings than Evans.
If two of LSU’s three weekend rotation spots are accounted for, that just leaves one spot available and to me the choice comes down to a pair of sophomores: William Schmidt and Cooper Williams.
If Jay Johnson bases that decision based solely on raw talent, then William Schmidt will start. But, if Jay wants to give the starting nod to the person who was, you know, the better pitcher then Williams has a case. Plus if we know anything about Jay Johnson it’s that he’s going to want to have a lefty in the rotation and that would also work in Williams favor.
William Schmidt is so, so talented, but in the two SEC innings he pitched he walked 11 batters. His fastball can hit 99 and he’s got crazy spin rate on his curveball, but if he can’t throw strikes what good does that do anybody? The hope is Schmidt is this year’s Kade Anderson. Remember the Kade Anderson we saw in 2025 is in an entirely different universe than the one we saw in 2024. Can Nate Yeskie do it again?
Williams had a quietly strong freshman season with a 1.80 ERA over 20 appearances. Like the other Cooper, Williams’ fastball is “fine.” It sits 91-94 and he’s got a good changeup to pair with it. Williams started to piece things together as last season came to a close: he pitched 8.2 innings from April 27 through June 7 and struck out 10 against two walks. And again: Jay wants to have a lefty in the rotation, and Williams has been stretched out in the preseason.
