Florida Baseball: Doubt Kevin O’Sullivan at your own risk

Florida baseball is one of the premier programs in the country year in and year out. Beyond just winning the 2017 national title, the Gators have made the College World Series seven times since 2010.

Yet heading into this weekend’s Regional round, Florida had not made Super Regionals since 2018, and the whispers on whether head coach Kevin O’Sullivan was the man to still lead the Gators were slowly growing.

But if you doubt O’Sullivan’s ability to lead the program, do so at your own risk.

Florida Baseball: The road back

O’Sullivan took over the Florida Gators in 2008 after Florida missed the postseason in back-to-back seasons in 2006 and 2007.

The vast majority of Gator fans are pleased with the job O’Sullivan has done, and it’s going to be a sad day when he does ultimately leave Gainesville. But there seems to be this narrative that has grown since 2018 that there is a contingent of fans that would rather see him leave and bring in a new coach.

Personally, I don’t think that contingent is very large, but these are the Florida Gators we are talking about. This is the fanbase that isn’t happy with anything short of a national title in any sport.

Yes, it’s true that Florida hadn’t made Super Regionals in four seasons and was at risk of missing it for a fifth time before a gutsy effort over Texas Tech this weekend.

But while 2019 and 2021 were admittedly not great seasons by Florida standards, the squad was 16-1 in 2020 before the world shut down and would have advanced to Super Regionals last year had a six-hour rain delay not killed the momentum.

And if going 48-15 so far in 2023 and being ranked 2nd in the country isn’t good enough for you, then nothing will.

“But Ben, they almost blew it in Regionals.”

This is baseball, anything can happen. Arkansas, Clemson, Vanderbilt, Miami, Oklahoma State, and Auburn all got sent packing early despite great regular seasons.

Plus, in their loss to Texas Tech, Florida baseball was getting good contact it just wasn’t being rewarded. That’s baseball for you.

But then, in navigating the loser’s bracket, Florida was never in danger of losing any of those three games.

If O’Sullivan doesn’t get credit for that, then who does?

Ask yourself this, would you rather have the program the Florida Gators have or the program FSU or Miami has right now?

If you answered the latter, you are a liar, and since you answered the former be gracious of what Florida has.