If Brian O’Connor, with the 14th-biggest budget in college baseball, doesn’t think he can win at UVA anymore, and that the $500,000 more per year that Mississippi State spends on baseball will give him enough of a better chance to win to risk tarnishing the legacy of what he’s done over 22 seasons in Charlottesville, man, you can’t tell a person how to think.
But you also couldn’t look at O’Connor moving on as being akin to the end of the world for the UVA Baseball program.
He doesn’t get to pack up Disharoon Park and take it with him.
UVA Athletics doesn’t all the sudden decide to stop spending $6.0 million a year on baseball.
We don’t go bargain basement with our next head coach.
When Virginia hired O’Connor in 2003, he was the pitching coach at Notre Dame.
If he leaves for greener pastures, or rather, just, a pasture, down in Starkville, we won’t be hiring somebody else’s pitching coach.
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We could start the search for a replacement with the two other top candidates identified in the Mississippi State search – Oregon’s Mark Wisikowski and Kansas’s Dan Fitzgerald.
Starting with Wisikowski: his salary at Oregon is $700,000, half of what UVA is paying O’Connor, so, it wouldn’t be a reach financially to lure him to Charlottesville.
Wisikowski was coming off back-to-back Super Regional appearances with the 17th-biggest budget nationally ($5.3 million) before being bounced as a national seed yesterday.
Fitzgerald is more of a reach – he’s only been the head coach at KU for three seasons, with one NCAA Tournament berth.
His salary comes in at $530,000 a year, so, gettable.
Kansas has the 32nd-biggest baseball budget ($4.1 million).
Honestly, we could, and will, do better.
Other guys worth looking at:
- Wes Johnson, Georgia: Johnson is 86-33 in two seasons at Georgia. He’s a former Minnesota Twins pitching coach (2019-2022) who also had stints as pitching coach at Mississippi State, Arkansas and Budget: $5.1 million (19th). Salary: $700,000.
- Nick Mingione, Kentucky: Mingione is 293-190 in nine seasons at UK, with two trips to the Super Regionals and a College World Series appearance. Budget: $4.9 million (20th). Salary: $875,000.
- Mitch Canham, Oregon State: Canham, the youngest coach on this list, at 40, is 217-99 in seven seasons at Oregon State, with two Super Regional appearances. Budget: $4.6 million (25th). Salary: $625,000.
- Josh Holliday, Oklahoma State: Holliday is 468-251 in 13 seasons at Oklahoma State, with two Super Regionals and one CWS appearance. Budget: $4.6 million (26th). Salary: $770,833.
- Cliff Godwin, East Carolina: Godwin is 431-213, with four trips to the Super Regionals, in 11 seasons. Budget: $3.8 million (36th). Salary: $600,000.
All of these guys have won lots of games, and done well in the postseason, with less than what O’Connor has had to work with.
An intriguing idea is Duke coach Chris Pollard, an Amherst County native who is 418-293 at Duke and won 244 games at Appalachian State.
We don’t know what he makes, or what Duke spends on baseball, because Duke is a private school, and doesn’t have to release that information, but you can bet that the budget there isn’t close to comparable to what Virginia can spend, if only because Duke plays its home games on a glorified middle-school field.
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Point to this exercise being, if Brian O’Connor leaves, it ain’t the end of UVA Baseball.
He’s the guy who got us to where we are, but let’s be complete and accurate here – he doesn’t sustain success without the money and resources being made available.
The money and resources are there after he’s gone, whether that’s in a couple of days, or 10 years from now, when it’s time for him to retire.
As long as UVA Athletics is still willing to spend in the Top 15 nationally, and pay a coach in the Top 10 nationally, we’re going to win baseball games.
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Chris Graham
