Virginia's Brian O'Connor emerges as front runner for Mississippi State head baseball coach

Virginia baseball head coach Brian O’Connor has emerged as a frontrunner to be Mississippi State‘s next head coach, per D1Baseball‘s Kendall Rogers. O’Connor has been the head coach at Virginia since 2004.

In his 22 seasons at the helm, O’Connor has amassed a stunning 913-392-2 record. He’s led the Cavaliers to two regular season conference championships, two ACC Tournament titles and a College World Series championship in 2015, the program’s only national title.

O’Connor has also led Virginia to seven appearances in the CWS (2009, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2021, 2023, 2024). For his efforts, he’s been named the ACC Coach of the Year five times and reeled in multiple national coach of the year awards.

Despite reaching the CWS in the previous two seasons, Virginia failed to reach the NCAA Tournament this season after posting a 31-25 overall record and a 12-18 mark in conference play. O’Connor was understandably disappointed in his team’s exclusion from the tournament.

“They were heartbroken and they should be,” O’Connor said of his team. “They knew we were on the bubble. They knew that this could happen, but they believed; they had hope… We had practice all three days this weekend. We scrimmaged two of the days. We prepared like we were into the tournament. 

“But I wanted them to watch that show, whether we got in or not. If we didn’t get in, I wanted them to know what it felt like.”

O’Connor’s players will be able to use that feeling to motivate themselves in the future but he might not be around to remind them. If O’Connor takes over at Mississippi State, he will be replacing Chris Lemonis, who the school fired on April 28.

Assistant coach Justin Parker has been serving as the team’s interim head coach since Lemonis’ dismissal. The Bulldogs made the Tallahassee Regional and will face off against Northeastern on Friday.

“A change in leadership is what’s best for the future of Mississippi State Baseball,” Mississippi State athletic director Zac Selmon said about the decision to fire Lemonis. “We have not consistently met the standard of success that our university, fans and student-athletes expect and deserve.

“I want to thank Coach Lemonis for his work and the time he gave to our program, including a national championship in 2021. We appreciate his efforts and wish him and his family all the best moving forward.”