Virginia To Hire Duke’s Chris Pollard As Head Baseball Coach
Image credit: Chris Pollard (Photo by John Adams/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Virginia is expected to hire longtime Duke head coach Chris Pollard to replace Brian O’Connor, sources have told Baseball America.
Pollard’s Blue Devils were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on Monday night, falling to four-seed Murray State in a shocking Durham Super Regional result. The series loss closed the book on a 41-win season that included a 17-13 mark in ACC play and marked the end of a historic 13-year run in Durham.
Pollard departs as Duke’s all-time wins leader and the architect of the most successful era in program history. When he arrived in 2013, Duke hadn’t reached the NCAA Tournament in over 50 years. Under Pollard’s guidance, the Blue Devils became a perennial contender, earning seven regional berths, four super regional appearances and national respect in a league filled with college baseball blue bloods.
Now, Pollard is set to inherit a UVA program that went to Omaha six times under O’Connor and has the infrastructure, talent base and NIL resources to sustain that level of excellence. The move marks a rare ACC-to-ACC jump between two high-profile jobs and reflects the esteem in which Pollard is held throughout the coaching community.
Longtime Duke assistant Josh Jordan is widely viewed as the favorite to replace Pollard at Duke after spending a decade as his top assistant in Durham from 2012-22. Jordan has been a key piece in LSU’s recruiting efforts since then, including having a hand in putting together the Tigers’ national title-winning team in 2023.
Jordan joined the Duke staff as recruiting coordinator in June 2012 and was promoted to associate head coach and recruiting coordinator by Pollard three years later. In addition to managing Duke’s recruiting activities, Jordan worked with the Blue Devils’ catchers and outfielders, helping to guide them back to the postseason for the first time in over half a century.
Virginia’s vacancy was among the most coveted in the country. In 21 years, O’Connor built it into a model of sustained success—highlighted by a 2015 national title, dozens of MLB draft picks and a culture that blended development with high expectations. Finding a successor to that legacy was never going to be simple.
Pollard, though, checks every box.
He’s proven he can win in a challenging academic setting. He’s shown an ability to develop deep rosters and maximize talent. And though he’s deeply rooted at Duke, the chance to lead one of the best-resourced programs in the ACC—and a consistent Omaha threat—was always going to be difficult to turn down.
Pollard, a North Carolina native and former Appalachian State coach, has long operated with a sense of loyalty and purpose, and is among the ACC’s most respected voices in recent conversations around roster regulation, NIL structuring and the future of college baseball.
In Charlottesville, he’ll inherit a team with sky-high expectations. O’Connor’s departure left a void, but Virginia didn’t stay idle long. It went after the proven winner it wanted from the jump.
