![Gators Baseball head coach Kevin OÕSullivan watches the intrasquad scrimmage from the dugout during Fall Ball, Wednesday, October 8, 2025, at at Condron Family Ballpark, in Gainesville, Florida. [Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun] 2025](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_1815,h_1020/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/213/01k8x46q1n09f7kmjzxr.jpg "Gators Baseball head coach Kevin OÕSullivan watches the intrasquad scrimmage from the dugout during Fall Ball, Wednesday, October 8, 2025, at at Condron Family Ballpark, in Gainesville, Florida. [Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun] 2025")
They say bad things come in threes, and that is holding true with Florida Gators Baseball. Back on October 22nd, it was announced that Kevin O'Sullivan was taking a leave of absence from the program, which is in the middle of its fall season.
Then last weekend, transfer Jaden Bastian suffered a compound leg fracture during a scrimmage, and his status for the 2026 season doesn't look great.
Then word came out on Thursday that O'Sullivan was losing one of his top assistants to one of Florida's chief rivals.
Chuck Jeroloman leaves Florida for Tennessee
Baseball America's Jacob Rudner has reported that Florida associate head coach Chuck Jeroloman is departing the program to join the staff at Tennessee. Jeroloman had been promoted to interim head coach after O'Sullivan stepped away.
Jeroloman came to Florida in 2020 after stints at USF and Jacksonville. He had previous minor league experience as a player from 2004 through 2010. He was the primary recruiter for the Gators and was the team's hitting coach. Under his watch, players like Wyatt Langford and Jac Caglianone turned into the most feared power hitters in all of college baseball, though overall consistency of Florida's lineup is up for debate.
The timing of his departure is notable since Tennessee just had its head coach, Tony Vitello, depart for the San Francisco Giants, and the fact that Florida is still in the middle of fall camp with Jeroloman as the interim head coach.
Tennessee wound up hiring Josh Elander, and the two crossed paths while Jeroloman was a volunteer coach at TCU in 2012-13.
The Gators have two exhibition games coming up, including Friday night at Jacksonville. It is not completely clear who is going to be in charge of the Gators for this game.
Florida enters the 2026 campaign hoping to avoid the freefall they had to open the 2025 season. The Gators opened SEC play 1-11, before a dramatic turnaround to finish 15-15.
Florida made the NCAA Tournament but was bounced after two losses to East Carolina.