Seven Cavaliers enter transfer portal

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo by Nikolozi Khutsishvili

Virginia lost its baseball coaching staff on Sunday. On Monday, several of the program’s players hit the transfer portal. A total of seven Cavaliers, many of them key players during the 2025 season, entered the portal as of 10 p.m.

Talented freshman pitcher Tomas Valincius entered the portal, along with sophomore first baseman Henry Ford, freshman utility man James Nunnalee and junior pitchers Evan Blanco and Bradley Hodges. Later on Monday, leadoff hitter Aiden Teel and power hitter Chris Arroyo hit the portal.

Those seven players decided to transfer less than 24 hours after Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor and most of his staff resigned and headed to Mississippi State (see related story).

Valincius, a left-hander with a 6-1 record, was a rising star with unlimited potential in the eyes of O’Connor, who predicted greatness for the rookie Cavalier. Valincius had a 4.59 ERA in 12 starts. He pitched 64.2 innings and walked only 17 compared to 70 strikeouts.

Ford has been a steady hitter in Virginia’s lineup for the past two seasons. The Charlottesville native, who played first base and right field, led UVA in runs scored this past season with 54, while hitting .362. In 50 starts, he posted 11 home runs and 46 RBI.

Blanco, a left-hander, was 3-5 in 8 starts this season with an ERA of 6.23. In 14 appearances, he pitched 39 innings, walked 9 and struck out 36.

Outfielder Teel scored 51 runs, blasted 59 hits for a .317 batting average, hit 7 home runs and had 40 RBI.

Arroyo, who transferred to UVA from Florida, was a left-handed pitcher with 4.97 ERA and as a utility player hit .291 with 11 home runs and 42 RBI.

Hodges, another southpaw, was 2-1 in 8 starts with an ERA of 4.88. He threw 27.2 innings, issued 17 walks and fanned 36.

Nunnalee, who played outfield, infield and catcher, carried a .401 batting average in 36 games. He had 42 hits and 26 RBI.

BREAKING: O’Connor leaves Virginia for Mississippi State

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Image: hailstate.com

Hall of Fame baseball coach Brian O’Connor, who built Virginia into a national baseball power, has been named head coach at Mississippi State University.

O’Connor will be introduced to the Bulldogs’ fan base on Thursday at 7 p.m. (Central) at Dudy Noble Field.

Despite last-minute, last-ditch efforts to keep O’Connor at UVA, relations had become too strained between the coach and the school’s athletic administration, according to sources close to the program. As of Sunday night, all of the UVA coaches had cleaned out their offices.

Associate head coach Kevin McMullen, assistant coach Matt Kirby and associate AD for baseball administration Justin Armistead will join O’Connor in Starkville. It is not expected that pitching coach Drew Dickinson will be included in the move.

Sources indicated that several donors and former players had rallied to raise big numbers to resolve issues that caused the veteran coach to look around for the first time since coming to Virginia from Notre Dame in 2004.

Some of those sticking points, according to sources, were UVA’s initial plan to fund only 20 full baseball scholarships rather than the newly allowed 34, along with O’Connor’s frustrations of Disharoon Park’s shortcoming with the stadium’s lighting system and the inability to play mid-week, nonconference road games more than two or three hours from home, something O’Connor had attempted to have changed for the past three years.

By the time money was raised, O’Connor had already decided to leave for Starkville, home to one of college baseball’s most passionate fan bases and a school willing to fork over funds necessary to compete on a national basis.

O’Connor, in a text message to his Virginia team, said: “I want to thank each of you for your dedication, tireless work and loyalty during our time together. You and the many players before you have made Virginia baseball what it is, as you have heard me say before _ it is the players that make the program what it is. I have chosen to accept this opportunity because I need a new challenge and am excited about this next chapter of my life.”

Meanwhile, O’Connor was quoted in a press release from Mississippi State on Sunday night.

“Mississippi State represents everything I love about college baseball — tradition, passion and a relentless pursuit of excellence,” O’Connor said. “I’ve coached against this program and followed it closely for years.

“The atmosphere at Dudy Noble Field is nationally recognized as the best in the sport. I’m incredibly honored and grateful for the opportunity to lead a program with this kind of legacy and fan base. Mississippi State has set the standard in college baseball and I can’t wait to get to work, build relationships and compete for championships in Starkville.”

O’Connor is considered one of the top baseball coaches in America, having been named National Coach of the Year three times. In 22 seasons at Virginia, he guided the Cavaliers to 14 straight NCAA tournaments from 2004-2017, 18 overall trips to the NCAAs, seven College World Series appearances, including three of the last four years. UVA won the national title in 2015 and was runner-up in 2014.

O’Connor has had 102 Major League Draft selections (including 14 first-round selections), 31 players reach the Major Leagues, including Ryan Zimmerman, Sean Doolittle and Chris Taylor, along with Andrew Abbott.

O’Connor ranks second among active Division I coaches in career winning percentage (.702), claiming his 900th career win in late March of 2024, and is one of only eight active Division I coaches with a national title.

“Brian O’Connor is one of the most respected and accomplished coaches in college baseball,” said Zac Selmon, Mississippi State’s athletic director. “He’s a national champion, a Hall of Famer and a proven leader with a track record of building a championship-caliber program.

“Mississippi State is built to win at the highest level, and Coach O’Connor knows what that takes. From elite player development to consistent success on the national stage, his resume speaks for itself. He understands the standard here and embraces the opportunity to elevate it even further. This is a defining moment for Mississippi State Baseball and a powerful step forward for our program, our players and our fans.”

Virginia fans must be wondering if this is also a defining moment for the Cavaliers program, having to scramble at the last minute to try and salvage an emergency, just way too late.

O’Connor’s hiring was such a big deal in Starkville that Mississippi State’s president weighed in.

“At Mississippi State, we have a long tradition of success in baseball,” said president Dr. Mark E. Keenum. “The ‘M over S,’ the Maroon and White, and hosting postseason in Starkville is woven into the very fabric of who we are and what we expect of our baseball program. Brian O’Connor is an elite level coach that aligns perfectly with our elite level program. His past certainly speaks for itself, but his clear understanding of the evolution and future of college baseball is clear. We are in the pursuit of championships. I am thrilled for Coach O’Connor, our student-athletes and Bulldogs everywhere as this is a historic day for Mississippi State.

It’s also a historic day for Virginia, which let one of the nation’s best coaches walk out the door, resorting to last-minute tactics to make up for a completely botched situation.

So, where will UVA look for its next head coach? University of Washington coach Eddie Smith is a prime target. Smith has only been with the Huskies for one season and was once on O’Connor’s coaching staff at Virginia. Smith is considered one of college baseball’s most brilliant offensive minds. Smith has proven himself at various programs such as Utah Valley, Notre Dame, Tulane, LSU and Santa Clara.

Duke’s Chris Pollard has been mentioned in recent days. Pollard grew up in Amherst County and was a self-described huge fan of O’Connor and Virginia prior to taking over the program at Appalachian State. Mark Wisikowski of Oregon, Mitch Canham of Oregon State and Kentucky’s Nick Mingione could also be candidates.

Reports: O’Connor clear-cut favorite for Mississippi State job; What has changed?

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo by Nikolozi Khutsishvili

According to numerous reports, Virginia’s Brian O’Connor is the leading candidate to take over the Mississippi State baseball program, one of the top jobs in all of college baseball.

This is an about face from when rumors tying the longtime UVA coach to the MSU vacancy first surfaced.

On May 6, O’Connor addressed those rumors with this reporter, saying: “This happens every darn year. Someone in the SEC fires their coach and immediately, I’m the top target. It doesn’t mean anything and has no substance.”

However, reports have emerged that the 54-year-old O’Connor, a three-time National Coach of the Year, has grown frustrated over some issues with UVA’s athletic department policies concerning his program.

Kendall Rogers of D1 Baseball, who is very well plugged into the college baseball scene, was the first to report Thursday that, “O’Connor has emerged as the clear-cut frontrunner to be the next head coach at Mississippi State.”

Not long afterward, the Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Mississippi confirmed Rogers’ report. Mississippi State is searching for the replacement of Chris Lemons, who was fired in late April for “inconsistency,” after leading the school to a national championship in 2021.

The Bulldogs (34-21) are being led by an interim coach as they compete in the NCAA Tallahassee Regional this weekend.

O’Connor is considered one of the nation’s top coaches and several SEC schools have made runs at him in the past, notably Florida, LSU and Texas A&M. However, after signing an extension last year with a contract that runs through 2031, the veteran coach has grown frustrated, according to sources close to him.

Apparently one sticking point, sources say, is the NCAA’s rule adopted for 2025-26 concerning funding for full scholarships in the sport of baseball.

The new rules “significantly alter scholarship and roster limits.” Division I baseball programs may now offer full scholarships to as many as 34 players (the new roster limit, trimmed from 40). Under the old rules, baseball could only offer 11.7 scholarships, which forced coaches to hand out partial scholarships to some of their players.

Some coaches have complained because the sport’s largest-budgeted athletic departments can ensure that others can’t compete with them.

“They are pulling up the drawbridge and leaving everyone else outside the moat,” one coach complained.

Some programs leave it up for the coach to raise the extra scholarship money for the jump from 11.7 to 34, which requires raising an additional $1 million to $1.2 million per year, every year.

We have reached out to the Virginia athletic department and requested what AD Carla Williams plans in terms of funding the 34 scholarships, but haven’t yet received a response.

Sources close to the program said that O’Connor was told not to expect more than 20 scholarships to be funded.

That is a major problem because schools with larger budgets or simply more money can easily fund 34, leaving schools that can’t afford to fully fund the limit unable to compete, certainly on the national level, which Virginia has become accustomed to. O’Connor has led the Cavaliers to 18 NCAA Tournaments since 2004, seven appearances in the College World Series (including 3 of the previous 4 seasons) and the national championship.

Another issue, which clearly has agitated the UVA coach, is the inability to travel outside a restricted area for midweek games. O’Connor complained Tuesday that his team is geographically locked into playing midweek road games within a couple of hours of Charlottesville, which limits his nonconference schedule, which in turn impacted Virginia’s RPI this past season. The NCAA selection committee pointed out UVA’s nonconference schedule as one of the reasons the Cavaliers were omitted from this year’s tournament, which included nine ACC teams, three that finished below Virginia in the regular-season standings.

A source said that O’Connor has unsuccessfully politicked for the ability to expand the distance of nonconference road trips for the past three years.

Ironically, Mississippi State was eliminated from the 2024 NCAA tournament by Virginia, perhaps leaving a strong impression on the Bulldogs’ athletic department. O’Connor’s buyout is $500,000.

Mississippi State is viewed as one of the crown jewels of college baseball jobs with spectacular facilities, including Dudy Noble Field, a strong NIL program and a passionate fan base. The Bulldogs held the top 10 attendance records in NCAA baseball history from 1988 to 2023, including an NCAA record of 16,423 vs. Ole Miss. No other schools have had more than 14,000 attendance on that list.

O’Connor: Heartbroken, takes ownership, addresses issues with scheduling

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo by Nikolozi Khutsishvili

Virginia’s watch party for the NCAA baseball tournament selection show started out hopeful for the Cavaliers but turned glum when the team learned its fate on Monday. UVA wasn’t included in the 64-team field, a rare fate for a Brian O’Connor team (18 invites since 2004).

The longtime Wahoos skipper didn’t like the end result but accepted the outcome, making no excuses. Still, he felt the sorrow of his team.

“Heartbroken, right?” O’Connor said. “When you pour everything into what you do and it doesn’t happen …” He didn’t finish his thought. Didn’t need to. The team was devastated that it couldn’t continue UVA’s postseason tradition, even though it finished the campaign hot, winning 12 of its last 15 games.

“They knew they were on the bubble. They knew this could happen,” O’Connor said. “But they believed, they had hope.”

Virginia was convinced enough that it would make the field that the team practiced all weekend leading up to Monday’s selection show. Then came the cold slap of reality, with a low RPI, low strength of schedule and too many losses to mid-major teams.

“We prepared like we were in the tournament and they were heartbroken, and they should be,” the coach said. “I wanted them to watch the [selection] show, whether we got in or not. If we didn’t get in, I wanted them to know what it felt like, and that feeling carries over.”

O’Connor said his heart ached for his players, but that being snubbed was a lesson that you get what you earn in life.

“Sometimes in this sport, at the highest level, it comes down to a game or two, whether you earn the opportunity or not,” O’Connor said. “It comes down to a game or a pitch or a play when you do get the opportunity. The margins are very small to get into the NCAA Tournament when you put yourself in the position that we did, and that’s what happened.”

The coach pointed out he was proud of the way his team responded on the back half of the schedule, winning 20 of its last 26 games, beating ACC regular-season champion Georgia Tech on the road, sweeping Miami, taking a road series against rival Virginia Tech. O’Connor said despite being left out of the NCAAs, it didn’t diminish how the team rallied to put itself in position for a possible bid.

“Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough in the first half,” O’Connor said. “A few games cost us the opportunity. That’s what it came down to. I’ve never been one to profess how we should have been in or analyze it. What I analyzed is what we did OK and the situation that we put ourselves in.

“As the leader of this program, I own that. It’s my responsibility. The players play the game. I manage the season and the emotions and ups and downs of it all. So as the leader of the program, I own it that we didn’t get into the NCAA Tournament. I’m not going to make any excuses. Sometimes it comes down to a game or two.”

O’Connor pointed out to his team following the selection show that Virginia’s program has been called more times than it hasn’t, and wanted everyone involved to keep things in perspective about this one season falling a little short. The program has been to the College World Series three times in the previous four years.

“I think sometimes people want to think, ‘Well, what’s going on? Did we take a step back?’” the coach said.

“It’s a tough business and I don’t shy away from it. I love being challenged at the highest level and being held to a standard of success.”

The coach said it was easy for critics to say it came down to a sloppy loss to Boston College in the ACC Tournament opener, that if the Cavaliers had won that game, things would have turned out differently.

“That’s too much to put on a group of young men,” O’Connor said. “We play a lot of games. I remind the guys throughout the season, that ‘Hey, this game in front of us, this midweek game, you don’t know which one it’ll be that gets you in [the NCAAs] or doesn’t get you in, and we just didn’t do that consistently enough. And I own that as the leader of the program.”

The NCAA selection committee pointed out several midweek losses as a sticking point, as well as having not played some of the ACC’s elite programs during the season, which impacted UVA’s RPI and strength-of-schedule ranking. O’Connor explained those situations to add clarity.

When the ACC schedule came out, he was somewhat concerned that some of the top teams in the league were missing from UVA’s slate, due to the conference rotation of 18 teams.

“I thought about it, that those are some of the traditional powers,” O’Connor said. “I’m sure those schools looked at the schedule and said, geez, we don’t have Virginia on our schedule, but that’s the way these big conferences are now.

“It rotates every year and you really don’t know until the games start to be played who is going to be really good. I mean, Louisville the last two seasons was not in the NCAA Tournament.”

He pointed out that most prognosticators felt Stanford was going to have an awesome year, potentially a team that would finish in Omaha.

Virginia went 16-11 in the ACC, and what bewildered O’Connor was that most every year that any league team has finished with that kind of record, they made it to the NCAAs. The coach was right. This was the first time since 1994 that a team finished five games above .500 in the ACC and was left out of the NCAAs.

“Well this year it didn’t because of some of our midweek losses. Historically, at least over the last three years or so, we have dominated outside of the conference. We didn’t dominate this year. We had some flaws.”

O’Connor believed that if his team had won two or more of those nonconference games, maybe one more ACC game, there wouldn’t have been a conversation about Virginia being snubbed.

The committee also pointed out UVA’s strength of schedule (No. 257 in the country), impacted by the absence of some of the ACC’s upper-echelon teams, and because some of the nonconference teams that typically field strong programs with good RPI had down years.

“The challenge with the nonconference schedule is that those games are scheduled three years out,” O’Connor explained. “You look at the teams that we played twice in the middle of the week, right in our own state, and you look at what their RPI was inside 80 or 75, and they were well below 200 this year.”

For example, Virginia’s 2026 schedule is already 98-percent complete.

He pointed out that he wanted this year’s team to be challenged right out of the gate and scheduled two opening-season tournaments in Puerto Rico and Texas against teams like Oregon State, Oklahoma and Michigan to test his players early. Still, when he agreed to play in those events, he really didn’t know what other teams were in the field until the brackets came out.

O’Connor has always played a lot of in-state teams in the nonconference portion of the schedule, which usually is a positive, but is somewhat limited with midweek opponents because of an inability to travel far for those games.

“We’re geographically challenged a little,” he said. “We can’t get on a bus in the middle of the week and drive somewhere for six hours to play. They’re students, too.”

O’Connor is aware of critics who suggest Virginia should play more SEC opponents in the middle of the week.

“How do you do that?” he questioned. “Clemson can play Georgia (and South Carolina) because they are in close proximity. The schools in our league that are farther south can do that. That said, over two decades, our scheduling model has worked. It has allowed us to be top-eight national seeds, it’s allowed us to host regionals and super regionals. It didn’t this year because we didn’t take care of what we traditionally take care of.”

O’Connor plans to examine the schedule for the future (although it’s too late to address the 2026 slate) and if changes need to be made, especially early in future schedules, he’ll address those needs.

COMING LATER: O’Connor analyzes his program’s pitching, who’s coming back, who’s going in the draft and how his roster will be impacted by the upcoming Settlement, along with if ACC coaches are concerned about keeping up with the rival SEC.