Cowbell Corner

Mississippi State's newest coach talks about first months on the job

Brian O'Connor hasn't been in Starkville for long, but he has hit the ground running to build the Bulldogs into a championship team.
Taylor Hodges|
New Mississippi State Bulldogs coach Brian O'Connor talking to the cheering crowd at his formal introduction Thursday evening at Dudy Noble.
New Mississippi State Bulldogs coach Brian O'Connor talking to the cheering crowd at his formal introduction Thursday evening at Dudy Noble. | Mississippi State Athletics

It has been nearly three months since Mississippi State hired Brian O’Connor and immediately sent the baseball program’s fans into an Omaha-or-bust mindset.

In that time O’Connor hasn’t done anything to quell those expectations. In fact, what he’s accomplished in a short period of time has made those expectations grow.

O’Connor has put together one of the best transfer portal classes in the country and one of the best high school recruiting classes. In order to do that, he had to hit the ground running.

“Anytime you take over an elite-level college baseball program these days, the way college athletics is, there's a lot of different dynamics that need to be done right out of the gate,” O’Connor said during a recent episode of the Dear Ol’ State podcast. “Our entire coaching staff has been in Starkville, out of Starkville, everywhere recruiting.”

O’Connor talked about how quickly him and his staff had to assess the program, meet with players, figure out who’s staying and who isn’t and recruiting players. A lot of players.

O’Connor did talk about some of the positions of need the Bulldogs had once the dust settled on players leaving the program.

“Catching was something that we needed to address. And we went out and got two catchers out of the transfer portal. Shortstop was something that we needed to address as well,” O’Connor said. “And we went out and got, you know, to a couple of players that we believe that can play shortstop. I just believe that if you're going to have an elite level baseball program, you've got to be strong up the middle.” 

Overall, O’Connor feels good about the team he’s put together, so far. And he’ll soon get a chance to start seeing them on the field.

“Wednesday, August 20th will be our first day with the team. Prior to that, for a couple of days, we'll have some compliance meetings and things like that to get them ready to go,” O’Connor said. “And, you know, we'll spend the first week kind of, you know, meeting at different times, laying the foundation, the standards of this baseball program and what we're about as a coaching staff and things like that. And so that's going to take some time, but it's important to do those things, right? Because it's important that we start off understanding what are our standards and our expectations in every facet of their life.”

You can listen to the entire episode here.

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Taylor Hodges
TAYLOR HODGES

Award-winning sports editor, writer, columnist, and photographer with 15 years’ experience offering his opinion and insight about the sports world in Mississippi and Texas, but he was taken to Razorback pep rallies at Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth before he could walk. Taylor has covered all levels of sports, from small high schools in the Mississippi Delta to NFL games. Follow Taylor on Twitter and Facebook.

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