O’Connor homerun hire for Bulldogs baseball program

• O’Connor’s worksheet and his stage of life suggest maturity, a guy with his feet on the ground, focused on his program, on the work of the day, not on the next big thing.

The messages went out during the week spreading the word with phones and laptops across and beyond the state.

Park here, here and here, not there. Gates open at this time. You can bring this, this and this, not that, into the stadium. Concessions will be available.

This was important information because Mississippi State officials know their fan base. They understand their fans’ loyalty to the baseball program, their high demands for success. They get it.

A lot of new college baseball coaches might be welcomed at the airport, but not Brian O’Connor.

The pyrotechnics, the speeches, the parade of former star players, all of it may have seemed a bit over the top. Maybe it was.

But Mississippi State’s past – and O’Connor’s – are worthy of something more than an airport greeting.

Indeed, O’Connor, it appears, is the most accomplished head coach to be hired by a Mississippi school in any sport.

Mississippi State athletics director Zac Selmon didn’t hire a veteran assistant coach. He didn’t hire a journeyman with several stops on his resume and the hope that this might be where it all clicks.

No, it clicked for O’Connor at Virginia, where he won a national championship in 2015.

There was a time not long ago when a Mississippi State coach could win a national title and give the school something different. O’Connor, 54, will have to win at least two to give State something another coach hasn’t.

After coaching pitchers at Creighton for two years and then spending eight years at Notre Dame, O’Connor, an Omaha native, stayed for 22 years in his first head coaching job leading the Cavaliers to seven College World Series trips and two other super regional appearances.

Only three times in his Virginia run – 2018, 2019 and 2025 – did the Cavaliers not reach the NCAA Tournament.

After State fans followed the instructions they stood and cheered O’Connor with a hero’s welcome, eager to see their program return to places he took the Cavs so many times.

It’s not that recent times have been desolate for State.

The national championship in 2021 carried a two-year curse, but the Bulldogs have been in the championship round of an NCAA regional the last two years.

That’s not the bar at State, however, and the Bulldogs were not on that path this season before Selmon made a change.

Uncommon loyalty

Others had tried but failed to separate O’Connor and Virginia.

When he met with local media late Thursday O’Connor talked about Virginia before he did Mississippi State.

“As the 22 years passed, we had so much success – on the field, in the classroom – the donors at the University of Virginia, the fans, it just kept growing and growing to levels that maybe nobody ever thought that it would. I’m incredibly proud of that and thankful for those 22 years of everybody that immersed themselves in that baseball program … players, fans, donors.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to thank the fans and all the support and everybody involved at the University of Virginia, but I am forever grateful for all the support that was there for that baseball program,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor won so much – at least 17 ACC wins for four-straight years before this season – that Virginia’s loyalty to him never became a question.

Putting in more than two decades of work, he more than repaid the faith placed in him as a young assistant coach in 2004.

But O’Connor’s heart-felt address put loyalty, ever-diminishing in the modern landscape of college athletics, on display.

At the end of the day, making a move now made sense on a number of different levels, he said.

“Certainly the program is supported at the highest level, and the history and tradition that are behind this program, but Zac Selmon 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. It had to be the place you felt like you could be as successful as possible. I poured everything into that program in Charlottesville,” he said.

The “why” question on a move like this is always a multi-layered answer.

“The timing was lined up from the standpoint of where I was at in my career and where my family was at. Yes, there have 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.

O’Connor didn’t mention his $2.9 million salary, another likely factor in his decision.

Auburn, Texas, Texas A&M, LSU and Florida have all expressed some level of interest in O’Connor in the past.

A good stage of life

O’Connor’s worksheet and his stage of life suggest maturity, a guy with his feet on the ground, focused on his program, on the work of the day, not on the next big thing.

Certainly on paper it looks like a home run hire for Selmon.

State fans are a loyal bunch. They’ll be devoted to O’Connor as long as he reaches that high bar of expectation.

He’s not bothered by that bar.

“This is an incredibly special place here in Starkville,” he said.