Several days of speculation about Virginia baseball coach Brian O'Connor's future with the program ended late Wednesday afternoon when the Athletics Department issued a press release that O'Connor had decided to stay in Charlottesville.
"I'm proud to be the head coach at the University of Virginia, and I plan to be the Cavalier coach for many years to come," O'Connor said in the release. "I came to the University of Virginia to build one of the best baseball programs in the country. When I took the job here three years ago, that was my goal and that will continue to be my focus."
The speculation was sparked earlier this week when it became known that Notre Dame head coach Paul Mainier was leaving South Bend to take the head coaching job at Louisiana State. O'Connor was an assistant to Mainier for nine years at Notre Dame before taking the Virginia job in 2003 and it looked as if the Irish would likely target O'Connor to be Mainier's replacement. In Wednesday's Richmond Times-Dispatch, O'Connor did not totally discount that possibility.
"[Notre Dame is] a great institution and a place where I spent nine years," O'Connor told the Times-Dispatch's Jeff White. "But we have something pretty special going on here [at Virginia]. It should be an interesting next couple of days."
Rather than wait a couple of days, however, O'Connor decided by Wednesday afternoon to make public his commitment to staying at Virginia.
"I feel very good about the commitment that [Athletic Director] Craig Littlepage, and the rest of our administration has made in the last three years and continues to make in helping our program reach our goal. Their commitment will continue to help develop our program into one of the best in the nation," O'Connor said.
Athletic Department officials were thrilled to hear the news that O'Connor would not pursue the Notre Dame job. Last October, O'Connor signed a two-year contract extension through July 2009.
"Brian O'Connor and his staff have built an incredible baseball program," Executive Associate Athletics Director Jon Oliver said in the same press release. "We are extremely proud of the success that he and his staff have brought in developing one of the top programs in the country and producing some of the best student-athletes at the University of Virginia. We look forward to him staying at Virginia for a long time and helping the department achieve its long-term goals."
O'Connor has accumulated a stellar 132-50 mark at the helm of the Virginia program and the Cavaliers have reached the NCAA Tournament in each of the three seasons since he has been here. He has brought in several of the best recruiting classes in Virginia history and has also pushed for several infrastructure improvements -- including video scoreboard that will be in place for the 2007 season -- at Davenport Field. O'Connor was named the ACC Coach of the Year in 2004 and was honored as a College Baseball Foundation Coach of the Year for 2006. This past season, the Cavaliers won a school-record 47 games.
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