Brian O'Connor Pins Letter to Virginia Baseball Community After Departure For Mississippi State

O'Connor was of course asked about what made him take the job at Mississippi State after being at Virginia for so long, as well as what the moment was like for when he finally decided to take the job and here is what he had to say:

"Well, so much goes into that, right? That's a long answer probably for that. We don't all have time for, but this is an incredibly special place here in Starkville. Certainly the program is supported at the highest level, right? In the history and tradition that's behind this program. But Zach Selman was a big part of this. I felt like if I was going to leave this place that I loved and worked at for 22 years, it had to be the right partnership, first and foremost. And then, you know, it had to be the place that you felt like you could be as successful as possible, right? I poured everything into that program in Charlottesville and, you know, the timing was lined up from the standpoint of where I was at in my career and where my family was at. Yes, there's been a lot of schools over the years that have reached out about their jobs, but make no mistake about it, this was the right one for Brian O'Connor to take a different path in his career.

Well, we had a final conversation, Zach (Selman) and I did. And I think he felt like in that conversation, maybe I should have or would have accepted the job. And I just told him that I needed a little bit of time. All right. And, you know, I'm a little bit of a softie sometimes. Okay. My family is always first and foremost in my decisions. So I sat down on the couch with my wife, Cindy, and my son, Dylan, and I held their hands and said one last time and said, are you all on board? Okay. And they looked at me and smiled and said, yes, we are. Right. I knew that I wanted to do it. I knew it was the right opportunity. Okay. And then I called Zach back and told him that I wanted to be the next baseball coach here. And then there's a process in this. It just doesn't mean that now you're going to be the baseball coach. Right. There's approvals that have to happen and things like that. And that takes, you know, sometimes 24 hours to run those approvals as just part of the search. Okay. But it was an exciting, proud moment in my life. Obviously, it was change, but really excitement."

O’Connor entered the 2025 season with a career record of 885-370-2 and a 362-234-1 record in ACC play. He is one of eight coaches in the history of the ACC to accumulate 700 wins and his .705 winning percentage is the highest among active NCAA coaches.

O’Connor guided Virginia to 14-consecutive NCAA tournament appearances from 2004-2017. Virginia is one of 16 programs ever to advance to an NCAA Regional for 14-straight years. This success has led to record crowds, excitement, and national exposure for Virginia Baseball, highlighted by the Cavaliers’ national championship in 2015.

A three-time National Coach of the Year, O’Connor is the second-fastest ACC coach to reach 500 career wins. He ranks eighth in ACC history in career wins, eighth in career ACC victories, fourth with 66 career NCAA tournament wins and tied for eighth with 31 ACC tournament wins.

His UVA teams have racked up 13 40-win seasons and played host to 11 NCAA regionals and seven NCAA super regionals. Since 2009, UVA owns 60 NCAA tournament wins — tied for the fourth most in the nation.

O’Connor was named the National Coach of the Year in 2015 by the ABCA, Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, D1Baseball and Perfect Game, marking the third year he has earned such an honor. He was tabbed the 2009 NCBWA and CollegeBaseballInsider.com National Coach of the Year and also was named the 2006 College Baseball Foundation Coach of the Year. He is a five-time recipient of ABCA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year laurels (2004, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015) and five-time ACC Coach of the Year honoree (2004, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014). O’Connor was inducted into the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame in 2017.

One-hundred and two of O’Connor’s Virginia players have been selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft including 16 in the first round. Left-handed pitcher Danny Hultzen was taken second overall in the 2011 MLB Draft by the Seattle Mariners, marking UVA’s highest draft pick ever. Three Cavaliers were selected in the first round in 2014, the most of any program in the country. UVA was the only program in the nation to have at least one player chosen in the first round of the MLB Draft from 2014-18, including Pavin Smith and Adam Haseley, who were chosen back-to-back in the top 10 in 2017, marking the first position players from the same college to go in the top 10 since 1988. Since 2014, Virginia has had multiple players selected in the first two rounds seven times, the most in the country.