1. Hiring Chris Pollard was an obvious win for Carla Williams and UVa athletics.

UVa’s athletic department found itself in a position it hadn’t been in for more than two decades, needing to hire a baseball coach. Brian O’Connor departed his post for Mississippi State on June 1st, and UVa started the process of trying to replace a legendary coach that led the Hoos to seven College World Series trips and the program’s lone national title.

Carla Williams and the department got to work on a replacement right away, and the search quickly focused on just a couple of names as the NCAA Tournament continued to play out. Ultimately, Virginia was able to land the coach that seemed like the most-qualified candidate on the board, Duke’s Chris Pollard. A Virginia native, Pollard expressed interest in the UVa job while his season played out in Durham; Duke ultimately bowed out in the Super Regional round, and Pollard was announced as UVa’s coach the following morning. It was a quick, productive search for UVa, and ended with the result that many were hoping for.

Losing O’Connor was a tough blow for UVa. The athletic department has seen very few coaches leave on their own, and almost none leaving for other jobs. O’Connor is the highest-profile Cavalier coach to depart for another college job in the modern era, and maybe ever, given his stature at the school. While that was a negative outcome for the Virginia program that O’Connor frankly built from nothing, Williams and UVa got to work quickly and the Pollard hire goes a long way towards repairing at least some of the damage. He’ll have big shoes to fill, but his success at Duke and Appalachian State before that gives UVa fans some hope that he can keep the UVa program rolling. Getting Pollard to sign on was a big win for Williams and UVa, and pulling a very successful coach from a conference rival demonstrates that the Virginia job is still viewed as a very good one.

2. Pollard brings an impressive track record of both winning and developing talent.

While there were certainly many successful coaches interested in this job, Pollard’s resume has to be at or near the top of the list, especially given the fact that his recent accomplishments have come at the high-major level.

Pollard won 420 games at a Duke program that hadn’t had much recent success prior to his arrival. He led the Blue Devils to seven NCAA Tournament appearances, and made the Super Regional round in four of them. Pollard had the Blue Devils one game away from the College World Series seven times in those four Supers, but couldn’t break through and reach Omaha. Still, the overall record of success is impressive. Pollard’s Duke teams won four regionals, all on another team’s field. Pollard also led Duke to the program’s first ACC Baseball Tournament title in 2021, their first league title of any kind in baseball in a half century.

Pollard coached at App State before Duke, leading the Mountaineers from 2005 to 2012. Pollard got App State to the NCAA Tournament in 2012, and his team beat UVa in that regional’s winners’ bracket game. Pollard ended his run at App State with a 244-210-1 record, and is 806-614-3 for his career, dating back to his time at D2 Pfeiffer, his first head coaching job.

In addition to his record of getting teams to the tournament and winning games there, Pollard has also recruited well, and developed quite a few pros and high-performing college players. Pollard saw 46 Duke players drafted during his time there, with 28 players named All-ACC and 16 named to All-American teams. And he did all that with far less at his disposal than many programs in the conference, including UVa, have.

3. Pollard has already started to reboot the UVa roster, and has his staff in place.

UVa lost a lot of talent to the transfer portal when O’Connor left, which is disappointing, though not exactly surprising. But just as UVa players went in the portal after their coach left, so did many Duke players, some of whom have already committed to join up with Pollard in Charlottesville. UVa has landed commitments from a handful of former Blue Devils, which should help backfill a depleted roster.

The biggest get so far is outfielder A.J. Gracia, an All-ACC performer that projects as a first round pick in 2026. Two-way player Kyle Johnson, first baseman Sam Harris and infielder Noah Murray, who hails from nearby Crozet, should provide plenty of offense. UVa also added pitcher Henry Zatkowski, an arm with a ton of potential, to the fold. A couple of Pollard’s Duke high school commits flipped to UVa as well. Jaylen Stroman, a two-way player and the brother of MLB pitcher Marcus Stroman, flipped to the Hoos, though he may end up getting drafted high enough to go pro right away. UVa also flipped Georgia prospect Will Huggins. There are a bunch of other transfers from Duke and former high-school commits that remain available and may end up coming to UVa, so expect a lot of former Blue Devils on next year’s team. And that’s not a bad thing, considering how good Duke has been of late.

While roster improvements continue, Pollard’s staff building was about as quick and drama free as it can get. Pollard simply brought over the core of his Duke staff to UVa, hoping to bring the success they had in Durham to Charlottesville. Brady Kirkpatrick comes over as the pitching coach, having spent the last two seasons with the Blue Devils, with stints at FAU, Harvard and Monmouth prior to that. Eric Tyler joins as the hitting coach, having led Duke to a ton of success at the plate. Tyler, like Kirkpatrick, has only been at Duke for two years, and played at ECU. Derek Simmons is UVa’s new infielders coach and recruiting coordinator. Simmons spent one year at Duke and had a successful run at Indiana prior to that. Simmons also coached at Kent State, Alabama and Kennesaw State. Pollard also hired John Natoli has his Director of Player Development and Brian Sakowski as the Director of Recruiting.

1. Can Pollard keep any of the Hoos in the transfer portal?

While Pollard has been busy adding players from his last stop, he’s surely trying to keep some of UVa’s top talent in Charlottesville, if he can. As we mentioned already, several players, including Aidan Teel and Tomas Valincius have already committed to O’Connor and Mississippi State. But others, like rising junior and Charlottesville native Henry Ford, and shortstop Eric Beker, remain available. Some of these players will be happy to return and play for Pollard, but just how many is TBD. And if he can find a way to keep some of the top talent that remain on the fence about staying or going on his 2026 roster, that would be a big boost to a program that could be competitive between returnees and additions from Duke.

2. How well supported will the baseball program be under a new coach?

UVa’s donors have long been supportive of the baseball program, helping O’Connor upgrade facilities and improve the program’s resources over the years. The current Disharoon Park is a palace compared to what O’Connor inherited at Davenport Field, and UVa will surely attempt to keep baseball as viable as possible under Pollard. There are big questions though, about how much UVa can afford to give to baseball, a sport that has a following, but does lose money annually.

UVa saw a rush of donor support to try to keep O’Connor in Charlottesville when the Mississippi State interest went public, but it wasn’t enough to get it over the line. We’ve been told that O’Connor was presented with what would’ve been a better set of resources for the program that would have included more scholarships and potentially revenue sharing, albeit on a small scale. The question now, is what will the appetite be for giving Pollard those same resources, and how much his support will have to be earned with good on-field performance. These are tough decisions for UVa’s athletic department and donors, but Pollard certainly is about as popular a hire as UVa could have made. Perhaps that will help keep donors engaged and potentially provide some momentum as the program tries to reset under a new coach.

1. At some point, Pollard will get UVa back to Omaha.

Pollard has been very close to making it to Omaha, and just hasn’t quite gotten over the hump. Baseball can be a fickle game, and Pollard has been one game away seven times; the odds would say one of those games would’ve gone Duke’s way, but it’s also worth remembering that the Blue Devils were underdogs in the first three Super Regional appearances before losing to cinderella Murray State this year. Now, Pollard comes to a Virginia program that has been to Omaha a bunch, and has the resources to compete. No, UVa won’t have the resources that many SEC programs will have, but if they do well in the ACC, they can earn home field in the postseason, and increase their odds of making a College World Series run. We’re also confident, based on his track record of recruiting well and developing players, that Pollard will put together quality rosters at Virginia. It’s impossible to replicate what O’Connor did at UVa, but the program Pollard takes over is in a good spot and he should be able to compete pretty quickly to make more deep postseason runs.