Florida Fires Pitching Coach After Postseason Struggles

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- After a surprise early exit in the Gainesville Regional to close out the 2025 Baseball season, the Florida Gators have fired pitching coach David Kopp after spending the last five seasons with the program. He became the pitching coach in 2024 after three seasons as a volunteer assistant coach.

Kopp, who joined the Gators program in 2022 after a strong tenure at FAU, coached nearly 20 MLB draft picks in his time in Gainesville, highlighted by names such as Brandon Sproat, Hunter Barco and Hurston Waldrep. In five seasons, Florida's pitching staff averaged a team ERA of 4.88 while allowing around 70 home runs per season under the assistant coach.

Florida has fired pitching coach David Kopp, sources tell @BaseballAmerica. Kopp spent the last five years with the Gators and served as FAU's pitching coach and recruiting coordinator from 2017-21. Has worked with some immense talent over the last several years.
— Jacob Rudner (@JacobRudner) June 6, 2026

While Florida pitching had one of its better recent statistical seasons in 2026, ending the year with their second best team WHIP, ERA and the fewest home runs allowed under Kopp, the unit collapsed in the home regional in which the Gators allowed 26 total runs in back-to-back games versus Troy.

The early exit was shocking after the team started 2-0 and was just one win away from hosting a Super Regional. The Gators' pitching staff allowed nearly 11 runs per game in the tournament against Rider, Miami and Troy.

Florida’s talented one-two punch Aidan King and Liam Peterson struggled to anchor the Gators rotation over the weekend specifically, with both high-profile arms allowing six plus runs and failing to pitch past five total innings in their sole starts.

“It felt like we were chasing runs the whole last two days," head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said following the final loss. “... Quite frankly, we didn't pitch well enough in this tournament."

Making it back-to-back Regional exits the past two years, change seemed needed for the highly-successful O’Sullivan, who looks to find answers this offseason and get back to the success that helped Florida reach Omaha nine times under the head coach.

The change continues a big shift to the nucleus of Florida’s coaching staff recently, following the departure of assistant coach Chuck Jeroloman to Tennessee last winter, while the Gators will now also have plenty of talent to replace heading into what could be a pivotal season.

O’Sullivan and the program have already started looking for said replacements, landing top-20 transfer Jon Embury on Thursday while having other top targets on campus this weekend. Still, the open pitching coach position will likely be towards the top of the list of priorities as the program embarks on an important offseason with plenty of big decisions ahea

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