On Tuesday, August 12, legendary college baseball coach Brian O’Connor joined the “Dear Ol’ State” Podcast to discuss what life is like being the head coach at Mississippi State.
Here are three things to take away from the discussion between O’Connor and the podcast’s hosts, Joel Coleman and Logan Lowery.
According to 64 Analytics, the Mississippi State Bulldogs have the third-best transfer portal class in college baseball this offseason.
The first-year head coach dove into the kind of players they acquired.
“There were some glaring things that we needed to address,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor stated that some of the position groups that needed to be addressed were catchers and shortstops. He also mentioned that some offense needed to be replaced in transfer portal additions as well.
“I just believe that if you are going to have an elite-level baseball program, you have to be strong up the middle,” O’Connor said.
Before being at Mississippi State, O’Connor was the head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers for 22 seasons.
A lot of the Virginia coaching staff and players followed O’Connor to Starkville for the new era that was coming of Mississippi State baseball.
“Ultimately, this all comes down to people,” O’Connor said. “When I made the decision to do this, I talked to my staff at Virginia and asked them, ‘Who’s in?’ Every single one of them said, ‘I’m in coach.’”
Through all of the coaching staff changes, the Bulldogs retained Justin Parker as their pitching coach. Parker served as the interim coach for the remainder of the 2025 season after Mississippi State dismissed Chris Lemonis.
O’Connor wanted him retained for experience within the Mississippi State program and also for any recruiting ties he may have.
Coleman and Lowery asked O’Connor about the team’s fall exhibition matchup with the Florida State Seminoles on October 18. Both Mississippi State and Florida State are two of the elite programs in all of college baseball.
“Florida State has got a great program,” O’Connor stated. “I have a lot of respect for them and their coach.”
The Mississippi State head coach added: “It is great to be playing down in Pensacola in the Blue Wahoos Stadium. The turnout will be great for both teams…We are going to do everything we can to win the game. However, it is about the development of the team.”
After the matchup against Florida State, O’Connor announced that Mississippi State will have one more fall exhibition opponent at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville.
More NCAA News: https://worldbaseball.com/league/ncaa/
PHOTO: Virginia coach Brian O’Connor speaks at a news conference, Sunday, June 22, 2014, with Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin, right, listening before the NCAA baseball College World Series finals between the teams which begin on Monday at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
