Brian O'Connor--UVA Baseball Coach

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I think Brian O'Connor of UVA should get some attention,

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Do you think he stole your car?

Brian O’Connor and CPM are really good friends. If CPM is forced out he will not take the job.

thanks for the heads up Mom O'Conner

Missed the Regionals in 18 and 18, no thanks.

Paul Mainieri has made it to Omaha 5/13 seasons.
Brian O'Connor has made it to Omaha 4/16 seasons.

You think he would be an upgrade?

No. I don't want a CPM buddy.

Y’all realize Paul is Brian O Connors mentor right? They have the same philosophy

Pretty sure I ate breakfast in Charlottesville at the next table one morning with some recruits or players on the team.

O'Connor isn't what we're looking for.

What you want is somebody who's young and on the way up, who's going to inject a huge amount of energy and enthusiasm for the program.

Right now there aren't all that many guys who fit that bill, unfortunately. But there are a few.

Dan McDonnell at Louisville isn't really all that young, but of the big-name coaches out there he's the one you focus on. He's in a class with Corbin at Vanderbilt and O'Sullivan at Florida, and if the rumors are true that he would be willing to jump then he's the first guy you make tell you no.

After McDonnell you have a lot of guys who are pretty settled where they are and unlikely to move, and then guys who are at places where they're stepping stones to a program like LSU.

Eric Bakich at Michigan could be one of those guys. But you're projecting with him, because while he's in the Top 25 right now you're really only going by that one CWS final he had his team in. He looks the part but he carries some risk. Big Ten baseball is a pretty big step down from the SEC - though Lemonis at Mississippi State came from Indiana and he's definitely a step up from Mainieri.

Andrew Checketts at Cal-Santa Barbara is an interesting name. He's been there 10 years and his program is pretty much the class of the Big West having upended Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State. He's a brilliant pitching coach, and he would be a colossal upgrade over what we have (and the benefit of that is that you might be able to hold Cain over as the recruiting coordinator and preserve a little bit of what does work with this current staff, while letting Checketts teach Cain how to coach pitchers and being able to hire a hitting coach on full salary). But it's a big step up from the Big West to the SEC.

Cliff Godwin would be a no-brainer hire at LSU if he'll come. But he's at his alma mater at East Carolina and he's been there for a good while. I think you make him tell you no.

Lane Burroughs has Louisiana Tech at No. 17, and they've become a pretty good program of late. He had Northwestern State looking pretty good before he got to Tech, he was John Cohen's recruiting coordinator at Mississippi State, and he's injected some energy and fired up the fans at Tech. I think you'd talk to him before you talked to Matt Riser at Southeastern, though he might be a bit of a reach for LSU.

John McCormack at Florida Atlantic has had his program at or near the top of CUSA pretty much every year, and he could keep a pipeline into South Florida. He's known as a really good developer of players. He'd be a dark horse hire, but he's a good coach and he works his arse off (which would be a nice change).

A young guy who might be worth looking at is Lance Rhodes at Southern Illinois. Rhodes was the lead assistant and recruiting coordinator for Steve Bieser at SEMO and at Missouri, and he's another guy who's known for working his arse off. Southern Illinois was going to be a surprise team last year - they beat USC last year and they were 12-6 when COVID ended the season. And they're 19-3 so far this year. He's something of a reach but he's coached in the SEC and if he runs through his league and does some damage in a regional he might be the young flavor-of-the-month Will Wade type guy.

Dan Heefner at Dallas Baptist is pretty much a no-brainer considering what he's done at a program that hardly even existed before he got there. He ought to be ones of the first calls to make if McDonnell won't take the job. DBU is in regionals year-in and year-out, and that's awfully impressive. They're good again this year, having beaten Missouri twice and Oklahoma and they're 14-7.

Obviously Vitello at Tennessee, but I think his contract might be a problem there. Word I heard is he's pretty locked up until 2024.

There are other guys. Especially if we're willing to bet on an assistant, but I'm not sure I want to go that route.

I just think we'd be better off looking deeper than insisting on an O'Sullivan or Tadlock or Schlossnagle. I don't know that you can move those guys.