Cowbells ring in Brian O’Connor era in Starkville

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Thousands of Mississippi State baseball fans and their patented cowbells showed up at Dudy Noble Field on Thursday night to greet and celebrate the hiring of Brian O’Connor.

The long-time Virginia coach was cheered, given his first cowbell and a No. 26 Bulldogs jersey, and was saluted with fireworks to cap off the night. O’Connor had already signed a four-year contract worth an average of $2.9 million annually, essentially doubling what he made at UVA ($1.4 million). MSU’s deal made the Hall of Fame coach the second-highest paid coach in the SEC, behind only Tennessee’s Tony Vitello ($3.25 million per year).

O’Connor said Bulldogs athletic director Zac Selman was the key figure in convincing him to accept Mississippi State’s offer, after having turned down opportunities at several other schools in recent years, including Florida, LSU and Texas A&M.

“Zac Selman was a big part of this,” O’Connor said. “I felt like if I was going to leave this place that I loved and worked at for 22 years, it had to to be the right partnership, first and foremost. And then, it had to be the place that you felt like you could be as successful as possible. I poured everything into that program in Charlottesville and the timing was lined up from the standpoint of where I was at in my career and where my family was at.”

Selman told media attending the welcome event that he was overjoyed when O’Connor decided to accept the Bulldogs’ offer. It wasn’t an easy decision for the veteran Cavaliers coach.

“Well we had a final conversation, Zach and I did, and I think he felt like in that conversation, maybe I should have or would have accepted the job,” O’Connor said. “And I just told him that I needed a little bit of time. I’m a little bit of a softie sometimes, OK. My family is always first and foremost in my decisions, I sat down on the couch with my wife, Cindy, and my son, Dylan, and I held their hands and said one last time, are you all on board?

“They looked at me and smiled and said, yes, we are. I knew that I wanted to do it. I knew it was the right opportunity. And then I called Zach back and told him that I wanted to be the next baseball coach here. There’s a process in this. It just doesn’t mean that now you’re going to be the baseball coach. There’s approvals that have to happen and things like that, and that takes sometimes 24 hours to run those approvals as just part of the search. It was an exciting, proud moment in my life. Obviously it was a change, but really exciting.”

O’Connor said he sat down with every Mississippi State player who had eligibility left, each meeting lasting half an hour, on Tuesday and Wednesday, but felt it was important.

“Those two days were long days, but they were great days because I got to understand from them, the guys that wore the uniform, what this place means to them, what the fan base means to them, and that cultural investment that is so important.”

O’Connor confirmed that Mississippi State pitching coach Justin Parker, considered one of the top pitching coaches in the nation, will stay on to complete his coaching staff.

The former Virginia skipper spent most of the early portion of his chat with media Thursday night, thanking UVA’s fan base for all its support through the years.

In addition to his salary, O’Connor also agreed to several contract bonuses that could earn him up to $500,000 in bonuses each year. Here’s the breakdown:

• SEC regular season championship: $50,000
• SEC tournament championship: $50,000
• SEC coach of the year: $50,000
• National coach of the year: $50,000
• NCAA tournament appearance: $50,000
• NCAA tournament super regional appearance: $100,000
• College World Series: $150,000
• College World Series final: $200,000
• National championship: $300,000