The 2026 NCAA baseball season is less than two months away. The Florida Gators take the field for their first game on February 13 against the University of Alabama at Birmingham to start a three-game series against the Dragons.
The Gators’ 2025 season started with an ugly 1-11 SEC play record, leaving the Florida faithful to think Gators baseball would not be a fun group to watch; but the Gators rallied to shock the world and finish the year 15-15 in conference play after winning 14 of their final 18 SEC matchups.
They reached the NCAA tournament as the No. 2 regional seed. However, they were eliminated in the Conway Regional by East Carolina.
Florida Baseball hoing for big turnaround in 2026
Since the Gators’ big turnaround to end the 2025 regular season, things have been swampy for the boys from Gainesville. Right before their October 31 fall exhibition against Jacksonville University, it was announced that head coach Kevin O’Sullivan was taking an indefinite leave of absence to handle personal matters, with no return in sight. With that news, the Gators assigned Assistant coach, Chuck Jeroloman, as the interim head coach; but just one day before the Gators’ fall game against Jacksonville, he announced he had accepted a position with Tennessee, once again leaving the Gators in a hole.
The Gators ended up being coached by assistant coaches Taylor Black and David Kopp.
It was later announced that associate head coach Tom Slater was hired to be the next head coach of the Florida Gators, leaving players thinking they finally had a coach again and could begin moving forward.
But just a couple weeks ago Scott Stricklin and the Gators announced that O’Sullivan would be returning and would coach the Gators in 2026.
While all of those matters were occurring, the Gators lost seven players to the transfer portal: Jacob Gomberg, Alex Philpott, Carson Motsdeoca, Niko Janssens, Felix Ong, Frank Menendez, Cole Bullen, and Brock Clayton.
They also lost Jake Clemente, Pierce Coppola, Luke Heyman, and Aaron Watson (incoming freshman) to the MLB draft.
The Gators did replace some of these positions with players like right-handed pitcher Ricky Reeth (from Notre Dame) and right-handed pitcher Russell Sandefer (from UCF). They also added an outfielder with speed in Jaden Bastian from Jacksonville University; catchers Karson Bowen, AJ Malzone, and Cole Stanford; and infielders/ outfielders, Sam Miller and Ethan Surowiec.
The Gators could be facing a bit of a rebuild year, however Kyle Jones believes the Gators are going to be good.
“I believe with all my heart that we are going to be a very good team,” said Jones.
believe it. pic.twitter.com/UXyBuKNcpo
— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) December 30, 2025
While Jones is optimistic, reality according to some could be different with the losses the team suffered through the draft and transfer portal, along with going through three different coaching changes during the fall season.
The Gators have less than two months before they take the field for the first time in 2026 and that will be the first opinion of how they’ve been able to prepare through adversity throughout the offseason.