2023 College World Series championship: Why I’m rooting for Florida

The College World Series is coming to a close and though the Mississippi State baseball team isn’t involved, I’m interested in seeing one team win.

Chris Lemonis and the Mississippi State baseball team failed to make it to Omaha for the 2023 College World Series. For the second straight year after winning it all in 2021, Mississippi State baseball fans have had to deal with disappointment and frustration.

And now, as the college baseball season is set to come to an end, I feel as if I haven’t watched anywhere near enough of it.

College baseball is an incredible sport and it, along with college softball, has one of the best postseason formats in all of sports. It’s a thrill to watch and I’m ready to see how this College World Series comes to a completion.

Though I’m not exactly a huge fan of either the Florida Gators or the LSU Tigers, I can get behind supporting Kevin O’Sullivan.

Here’s why I’m rooting for Florida baseball during the 2023 College World Series

Even though he doesn’t coach in Starkville, I’m actually fine with O’Sullivan having a shot at winning another title. In 2019, Patrick Schmidt (a brilliant editor who worked patiently with me over at FanSided.com) pointed me down the path of finding out about former Clemson baseball head coach Jack Leggett.

Leggett, when he was Clemson’s head coach, had a staff comprised of Erik Bakich (Michigan’s head coach in 2019 when the Wolverines were in the College World Series finals), Tim Corbin (Vanderbilt’s head coach now and also when the Commodores made it to the College World Series finals), and Kevin O’Sullivan (Florida’s head coach).

And so, with knowing that O’Sullivan was friends with Bakich and Corbin (who were competing against each other in the College World Series), I started reaching out to Florida, Michigan, Clemson, and Vanderbilt to see if anyone would be interested in talking about their time under Leggett and what it meant now that they all had reached such high heights.

As you can image, Vanderbilt and Michigan were pretty busy, but Florida hadn’t made it to Omaha that season and O’Sullivan ended up returning my emailed request with a phone call.

And this is the story I got to tell after a 45-minute chat with O’Sullivan over a cell phone.

He’s a humorous and friendly guy. He was remarkably gracious with his time and was incredibly patient with a young knucklehead who was trying to figure out his way through working in news, sportswriting, and digital media of all aspects.

I still appreciate that.

I have no clue who wins tonight. LSU took game 1 in extra innings while Florida won big in game 2. And at the end of the day, it won’t matter to me personally who wins. But I’d appreciate it if O’Sullivan got another win.