Gators head coach Kevin O'Sullivan, with baseball administrator Chip Howard looking on, following his team's NCAA Super Regional win against South Carolina to clinch the program's first College World Series berth since 2018. (Photo: Maddie Washbun/UAA Communications)
Gators Baseball 2.0: O'Sullivan Revamped Program to Return to Omaha
Friday, June 16, 2023 | Baseball, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
OMAHA, Neb. — The exchange was easy to miss on a whirlwind day loaded with obligations and preparation for the game's biggest stage. Gators head coach Kevin O'Sullivan had just concluded his media session Thursday afternoon at the College World Series when longtime NCAA press conference moderator Bill Cousins thanked everyone for coming.
O'Sullivan turned toward Cousins, seated to his right, and offered seven meaningful words for those who know the broader story surrounding the Gators' return: "Thank you. It's good to be back."
For most of the 2010s, it seemed as if O'Sullivan owned a one-of-a-kind "Road to Omaha" map with specific directions for getting here. The Gators made it to the CWS in seven of nine seasons from 2010-18, winning the program's first national championship in 2017.
Seeing O'Sullivan and Cousins seated together on a stage at the CWS became almost as common as a weather delay during a Gainesville Super Regional.
And then times changed.
Following four consecutive trips to the CWS from 2015-18, the Gators stumbled home from the Lubbock Regional in 2019 after a pair of losses to Dallas Baptist. The deflating end capped O'Sullivan's 12th season in charge of the program and ignited a makeover from the inside out.
"One of the hardest things for any head coach to do is to identify a change that needs to be made and then actually go ahead and do it," said Chip Howard, Florida's executive associate athletics director of internal affairs and veteran baseball administrator. "Sully made the decision to go in a different direction and identify maybe a new way of doing things, and one way to do that is to bring in new staff."
In past trips to the CWS, a prominent storyline for the Gators revolved around the unique makeup of their coaching staff. When O'Sullivan took over the program following the 2007 season, he hired two longtime associates and baseball lifers in assistant coaches Brad Weitzel and Craig Bell. The trio woke a sleeping giant and built the program into a powerhouse, parlaying decades of experience on the professional and collegiate levels into annual trips to Omaha. And for 12 seasons they remained together in an era when coaches often said goodbyes before ever saying hello.
However, after the up-and-down 2019 season ended in Lubbock and snapped Florida's four-year streak of CWS appearances, Weitzel was out, and O'Sullivan hired former Auburn shortstop and USF assistant Chuck Jeroloman. The Gators regrouped with a blistering start to the 2020 season before the coronavirus pandemic struck.
When play resumed the following season, more changes were on the horizon as longtime volunteer assistant coach Lars Davis took a full-time position at Georgia State. O'Sullivan tabbed Florida Atlantic pitching coach/recruiting coordinator David Kopp to fill that role. And then, after back-to-back regional losses, Bell was replaced by assistant coach Taylor Black following last season.
The Gators arrived for practice Thursday at Charles Schwab Field with a renewed enthusiasm for being here after five years away and with many new faces at the CWS for the first time.
"There's a great deal of satisfaction to see the players and the hard work they put in to get us back to this point," O'Sullivan said. "You have to have the right culture to do this thing over and over. It's not easy."
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The Southeastern Conference regular-season co-champion Gators open the CWS on Friday night against Virginia with a five-game winning streak and as the No. 2 national seed. Florida won three consecutive elimination games in the Gainesville Regional and then swept South Carolina in the super regional.
While the Gators' powerful lineup — they have hit 129 home runs to threaten the program record (132) set 25 years ago — and dominant pitching staff anchored by starters Brandon Sproat, Hurston Waldrep and Jac Caglianone have Florida considered one of the favorites in Omaha, the internal transformation has proved pivotal for those in the clubhouse. Assistant coach David Kopp and catcher BT Riopelle celebrate Florida's College World Series berth. (Photo: Maddie Washburn/UAA Communications)
"There's a fantastic blueprint and foundation of the program that Sully has built here," catcher BT Riopelle said. "But much like anything else in life, you have to adapt and revamp and continue to move and progress with the game. He's done a fantastic job with that.
"Sully and Chuck and Taylor and Kopp do an unbelievable job creating a culture that we have here to focus and prioritize and wrap yourself around the team, not individuals. That's why we're here."
Shortstop Josh Rivera joined the program in 2020 and has evolved with the program, arriving as a top recruit and then suffering through growing pains to become an All-American in his fourth season.
The revamped culture, one mixed with old-school fundamentals and new-school analytics and player relations, can't be overlooked in his eyes.
"That's kind of just been the biggest thing," Rivera said. "No matter what the internal changes have been, we've always just reiterated that point of emphasis, and that's just to wrap yourself around the team and play for each other because, you know, it's funny they say this: 'You can take a horse to the water, but you can't make them drink it.' They give us all the tools that we need to be successful, but it's really up to us to play for each other and really mold that mindset of winning and playing together on a daily basis in order to make it back to here."
In the staff makeover, O'Sullivan remains at the controls and heavily involved in working with the pitchers, teaming with Kopp to develop one of the deepest staffs in the country. Jeroloman serves as de facto hitting coach and team defense specialist, while Black coaches third base and brings his recent history as a professional cross-checker into the recruiting and player evaluation spaces. Meanwhile, former Gators catcher Mike Rivera, the receiver on the 2017 national championship team, returned this season as a student assistant coach, and Zach Cronin's role in player development/data analysis has expanded in recent years.
Essentially, O'Sullivan has built Gators Baseball 2.0 since 2019.
"We've done things a little bit differently than they were probably done prior to, but at the same point, there were some really good imprints that were left here and were building blocks on what we needed foundationally," said Jeroloman. "The whole landscape of college baseball is completely different. Recruiting is definitely a little different than it was prior to."
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In his 16th season on the job, O'Sullivan quipped Thursday about how trips to Omaha became so typical for the Gators that his kids used to consider it an annual vacation.
But they have a different perspective now, much like their father.
"I think it's human nature. Even I can admit it myself," O'Sullivan said. "I took it for granted that this was expected every year, and all of a sudden, that's taken away from you for three or four years or whatever, and then you kind of appreciate it a little bit more."
Howard has worked closely with O'Sullivan for the majority of his tenure. They celebrated the 2017 national championship together until the wee hours of the morning as Howard prepared for a career outside the University Athletic Association.
It was a moment they both had worked together toward for a decade. When Howard returned to UF two years later, they resumed their working relationship as O'Sullivan began to revamp the program.
The Gators practiced at Charles Schwab Field on Thursday for the first time since 2018, their last trip to Omaha. (Photo: Maddie Washburn/UAA Communications)
What the previous staff accomplished cannot be overlooked. They helped the Gators reach the mountaintop. Still, returning to Omaha has proven that difficult decisions are often necessary to climb back to the top.
"Both Brad and Craig did a great job and worked really hard and helped Sully put the program on the map," Howard said. "He put together the staff himself and identified the right people he wanted to execute the culture in the program. I think that re-energized Kevin. He went ahead and made the changes, and that's paying dividends.
"Over time, programs evolve. You either evolve or die. I give Sully credit for recognizing, 'Hey, we need to evolve as a program. The things we did in 2008 will not work in 2020 or 2023.' Tip of the cap to those guys for working so hard and building it."
O'Sullivan is not one to reflect much during the heat of the moment. He is laser-focused and often attached to an iPhone when not in uniform.
His job has evolved, too. The recent introduction of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness (NIL) has made the job even more demanding. He and his staff have been busy recruiting and monitoring the transfer portal during the NCAA Tournament.
O'Sullivan's escape is in the dugout when the most critical decisions impact the game, not necessarily the trajectory of a program.
During that Thursday press conference, he took a moment to appreciate the long road back to Omaha since his last visit.
He has altered his approach over the years, some of which meant a change of direction for a program that not so long ago seemingly had a yearly reservation in Omaha.
"When I got hired by Jeremy [Foley] in '07, no one gives you a handbook that says here's how you do this thing," he said. "There's some growing pains. You learn. How do you learn? You learn by making mistakes, and that's one thing we preach to our players all the time.
"But the thing is, you hopefully learn from your mistakes. I mean, it's like anything else in life. Everybody makes mistakes, right, but you have to learn from them. I think I was smart enough to recognize some of the mistakes that maybe I have made from my leadership role by coming out here early on."
