The college baseball rumor mill picked up major steam after South Alabama eliminated Florida in a 19-1 beatdown Saturday.
Media outlets reported that LSU had serious interest in Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan to fill their vacancy after the Tigers coach Paul Mainieri announced his retirement after 15 seasons with the program. With the Gators’ early exit, the potential move has gone ablaze again.
This isn’t the first time O’Sullivan has been named as a top candidate for another program. In 2016, there were reports that Texas wanted to steal O’Sullivan from Gainesville. But plans for a new stadium and a contract extension that made him the highest-paid coach in college baseball kept O’Sullivan in orange and blue.
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Kendall Rodgers, a writer for D1Baseball.com, outlined some of the pros and cons of each program.
The biggest negative he cited for Florida that fan support for baseball isn’t as strong as it is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Yes, the fan support at the new Florida Ballpark wasn’t great this weekend. They averaged only about 3,500 fans over the two games that can hold up to 10,000. But the weather was terrible. It was muggy and humid, and both games endured rain delays, however, this is nothing new to Rainesville. People in Gainesville also were still adjusting to lift without COVID-19 restrictions.
And yes, the Gators will lose a slew of talented players to the draft, but that isn’t new, either. O’Sullivan hasn’t had difficulty reloading his roster and having his team compete at a high level.
Finally, Florida’s 2021 baseball season was the most disappointing one in Gators athletics in a long time. But this year was different because of COVID-19. If the season wasn’t upended, the Gators seemed poised to make a run for another title at the College World Series. They went undefeated until FSU knocked them off in the final game of 2020.
Personally, Gators fans should take a lesson from Aaron Rodgers and R-E-L-A-X. O’Sullivan won’t be going anywhere this offseason.
Florida has owned the state on the recruiting trail and just opened a gorgeous new ballpark. It has all the pieces for the program to stay in the hunt for more championships.
O’Sullivan would be foolish to leave for another program, even a powerhouse like LSU, with all the resources available to him. UF has also been traditionally better than the Tigers over the last decade, including a win over LSU for its first title in 2017. It would also be difficult to leave his family behind and make his children move away from their friends in Gainesville.
Because of all these factors, I’d be surprised if O’Sullivan ditched the Gators.
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