MSU welcomes O’Connor to Maroon and White Family
Mississippi State owns a national championship trophy. So does Brian O’Connor. Now, the parties have teamed up with plans to win another—together.
“I’m honored to be the new baseball coach at Mississippi State, and lead the program into the future,” O’Connor said as he was welcomed by thousands to Polk-Dement Stadium as the next and 19th leader of Bulldog baseball.
“We have very high expectations here,” MSU President Mark E. Keenum said during the June event. “This stadium is the finest in the nation and is built for us to host post-season play. We expect to compete for the SEC Championship, to host regionals and super regionals. And, yes, we expect to make our annual journey to Omaha.”
Count O’Connor in, and not least because Omaha is his old home ground.
“I love making something better than when you got there,” he said. “Those things drive me. I’m excited about putting our footprint on the huge tradition here and making it the best we can make it during our time here. Maybe, making it better.”
O’Connor has already made one situation the best it ever was and may be. In 22 seasons at Virginia his teams won 917 games with a 70% success rate, which ranks O’Connor third-best among active skippers. All seven Cavalier appearances in the College World Series have been under his management. So are the nine NCAA Regional titles out of 18 berths.
Now the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame member and three-time college coach of the year has come to Starkville to play for more championships, and do it in the sport’s grandest venue.
“There have been a lot of schools over the years that have reached out about their jobs,” O’Connor said. “But make no mistake about it, this was the right path in my career.”
A different path to the same goals, and bigger too.
As Zac Selmon, director of athletics, said, “We set the standard in college baseball. Now we’re going to elevate the standard.”
A Proven Winner
Minutes before announcing the news on the same Sunday evening the 2025 team’s season ended, Mississippi State teased Bulldog faithful with a social-media image of a Left Field Lounge grill issuing maroon smoke. The sentiment, which echoed the smoke signals used during the election of a new pope, was fitting. The church of Bulldog baseball has a seasoned shepherd.
O’Connor is the first sitting head coach hired by Bulldog baseball, unless one counts the second tenure of Ron Polk. O’Connor is entirely alone in MSU history as the first with a National Championship already on the resume, having led the Cavaliers to a College World Series title in 2015.
When Selmon and Keenum made a coaching change in late April, O’Connor’s name quickly percolated to the top. Even for a Mississippi State-level program, the college baseball world could not truly believe a big winner in a program he’d built could be moved.
The sales pitch was simple.
“There was a lot to talk about but we really focused on two things,” Selmon said. “Relentless effort to win championships, and the right competitor to embrace the living, breathing monster program we have here. During our conversations it was crystal clear we had the same visions for the program.”
That vision: Not just maintaining a historic program, but pushing it to new heights. It’s a challenge he said excites him.
“That leads to why I coach. I love building young men and impacting their lives,” O’Connor said. “I love making difficult decisions. I don’t shy away from them. It’s not an ego thing. If you’re a leader you can’t be afraid to make difficult decisions.”
A Considered Decision
Despite the appeal of the MSU job, O’Connor didn’t jump in with a “yes.” Leaving a home and a team you’ve built over 22 years isn’t a decision to take lightly. He asked for a day to consider—not to get a sweeter deal, but to get input from his wife Cindy and son Dillon.
“I’m a little bit of a softie sometimes,” O’Connor admitted. “So, I sat on the couch and I held their hands, and asked one last time, ‘Are you all on board?’ They looked at me and smiled saying ‘Yes, we are.’
“I knew it was the right opportunity, and then I called Zac back and told him that I wanted to be the next baseball coach here.”
With that decision, O’Connor became just the fifth coach with a College World Series title on his resume to move to another college job.
But Mississippi State is not just another college baseball job, something O’Connor knew already from scattered contact with Bulldog baseball. In fact, he had been to Dudy Noble Field before—in his role as Notre Dame pitching coach when the Irish and the 2000 Bulldogs battled into an extra inning of the Starkville Regional rubber game. It was O’Connor’s staff that gave up the 10th-inning solo shot by Ty Martin to walk-off the title.
“That was the last time I had been to Starkville,” O’Connor said.
His other interactions with the Maroon and White were also high-pressure situations. The 2013 Cavaliers, which had the core of the national title team two years later, hosted MSU in the Charlottesville super regional. Those Bulldogs took the series in two, en route to a national runner-up finish.
Then, in 2021, the Bulldogs handed the Cavaliers their first loss in that year’s College World Series with a 6-5, second-round game. The Dawgs, of course, left Omaha with the hardware.
Three Junes later, O’Connor had the 2024 Dogs on Virginia’s campus for a regional. The Cavaliers returned the favor with a pair of wins, and kept going on to Omaha once again. Given the number of Bulldog fans who went to Charlottesville, O’Connor knows the fanatical following he now intends to please.
A Beast to Tame
“This is amazing,” O’Connor said of Starkville’s baseball atmosphere. “The mecca of college baseball, right here in Starkville. The best environment for college baseball in America.”
It is also a living, breathing and ever-hungry monster. Then again, Mississippi State shares the SEC stage with many monsters. So O’Connor has to feed one beast and beat back a bunch more.
“It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s for the elite who want to play on the biggest stage,” Selmon said. “We wanted somebody to participate and chase championships at the highest level.”
To this end, Mississippi State is increasing investment. O’Connor is getting a handsome paycheck, second-largest in the SEC per reports, with lots of incentives built in. At the same time, his coaching assistants are getting greater funding, as well as off-field staffing.
“Obviously, the support is here,” O’Connor said. “This stadium, this fan base, everything that goes on with that to attract and retain the right talent to give your program a chance to win championships.”
Above and beyond, the coach noted, is the cultural investment in baseball which makes Mississippi State unique.
“When I walked out of this place and I knew what it was about,” O’Connor said. “Twenty-five years later, it’s grown.”
Yet there is room remaining for even greater growth.
“That’s why Zac Selmon and I have committed to make sure this program and these young men and staff have the resources they need to compete at the highest level and meet our expectations,” Keenum said. “That’s why we decided to bring the best coach in the nation to Starkville to lead our team, and we’ve done that in Coach O’Connor.”
O’Connor set the tone at first talk. He will field a tough-minded team that plays with aggression.
“But we will play the game the right way, with class all the time,” he said. “We won’t back down from anybody, but it will be played in a classy way that will represent this community the right way.”
There is one right way Mississippi State wants itself represented: winning championships, holding up trophies, and dog-piling while ribbons rain. Bulldog baseball has one championship trophy to prove it, and so does Brian O’Connor.
Now it is time to go get the next one. A challenge?
“My response is, bring it on,” O’Connor said. “Bring it on. That will be the attitude of the players as well. We need to go to work.”
By David Murray, Photos by MSU Athletics
One Hall of Fame Bulldog Coach welcomes another to Polk-Dement Stadium
Bulldog baseball’s history was already well-represented in the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. C.R.‘Dudy’ Noble was inducted in 1967, Paul Gregory in 1977, and Ron Polk in 1995.
Now, Mississippi State claims a fourth in Brian O’Connor, inducted just a year ago by peers. It was fitting Polk himself introduced the newest skipper to a cheering home crowd.
“Legend!” O’Connor said of Polk. “This man set the standard of this program. He built what is here today. So I can’t wait to sit down many, many times and learn and appreciate what you have done for this community.”
How much O’Connor has left to learn about college baseball is speculative.What remains for him to learn? How this campus and community became a wellspring for the sport.
“Yes,” O’Connor said, “I will visit the museum,” meaning Polk’s home-based shrine.
Given how long each man has been in the game, it is surprising Polk and O’Connor never occupied opposing dugouts. And the Dawgs’ new coach is a rare exception in coaching circles as he does not have a “Polk Story” of his own to share.
But yes, even a young O’Connor knew who No. 1 was.
“I grew up in Council Bluffs, Iowa, right across the Missouri River from old Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha,” O’Connor recalled. “Mom and dad would take me and my two brothers every year, multiple times, to College World Series games. I’ve got game programs from when Coach Polk coached, with the player autographs in them, so this dates back a long time ago.”
O’Connor has other “autographs” by Polk. Once an established member of this field fraternity, he would receive the famed hand-written letters from the Godfather of SEC Baseball. Now, he can smell the cigar smoke for himself at Polk-Dement Stadium.
“I just always admired him as a coach and his ability. I’m just excited to spend some quality time with him.”
By David Murray, Photo by MSU Athletics