Virginia Fans and Social Media React to Chris Pollard Becoming UVA's New Baseball Coach

Virginia Baseball has their new head coach.

A little over a week since long-time head coach Brian O'Connor left to take the head coaching job at Mississippi State, Virginia hired a head coach to replace him and it comes from within the ACC. The Cavaliers officially hired Duke head coach Chris Pollard this morning and one of the most accomplished coaches in the country is going to be leading UVA next season.

Pollard arrives in Charlottesville after spending the last 13 seasons at Duke, leading the Blue Devils to a 420-296 record, seven NCAA tournament berths, four Super Regional appearances and two ACC Baseball Tournament championships. His 420 wins are the most by a head coach in Duke baseball history.

During his time at Duke, Pollard coached 46 Major League Baseball Draft picks, 28 All-ACC selections, nine Freshman All-Americans and seven All-Americans.

Virginia will be Pollard’s fourth stop as a collegiate head coach. Over his 26 seasons as a skipper, Pollard has compiled a career record of 806-614-3, including stops at Pfeiffer (2000-04), Appalachian State (2005-12) and Duke (2013-25). As he did at Duke in 2025, Pollard led Appalachian State to the NCAA Tournament during his final season with the Mountaineers in 2012.

No stranger to postseason baseball in Charlottesville, Pollard coached Duke to the 2023 Charlottesville Super Regional and Appalachian State to the 2012 Charlottesville Regional.

In his final two seasons in Durham, Pollard led the Blue Devils to back-to-back 40-win campaigns for the first time in program history, culminating in Duke hosting its first Super Regional in 2025.

After he was hired, there was of course plenty of reaction from Virginia fans and the rest of social media: