Former Foes Become Family: Meet the New Virginia Coaching Staff

Virginia made a big splash on Tuesday morning when they hired Amherst County native Chris Pollard away from Duke. Reports from prominent sources indicate that the former Duke head coach will bring his entire staff to Charlottesville with him. Familiar foes will become family as one of the best coaching staffs in the country transition to a new home within the ACC.

The job that Chris Pollard did over the last decade building the Duke program can’t be overstated. Prior to his hiring, the Blue Devils hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament since their last Omaha visit in 1961. Under Pollard’s direction, Duke made an NCAA Regional in seven of the last nine full seasons. They reached a Super Regional in four of those years. Add in two ACC Tournament Championships and the progress he made in Durham is nothing short of incredible.

As Pollard takes over the head coaching job at Virginia, he brings with him one of the best coaching staffs in the country. Over the past three seasons in particular, the results and performances of Pollard’s assistants shouldn’t be overlooked. 

Brady Kirkpatrick’s coaching job during his first season at Duke in 2023 might be one of the best pitching coach jobs I’ve ever seen. After a difficult 2022 that saw Duke suffer its first losing season since Pollard’s first year in 2013, the Blue Devils looked poised for a bounce back behind the arms of Luke Fox and Jonathan Santucci in the weekend rotation. Both were expected to be workhorses and the primary inning eaters for the staff.

Luke Fox was lost for the season in the fall while Jonathan Santucci went down halfway through the year, seemingly leaving the Blue Devils adrift. At the time, they were 16-10 overall and 4-6 in the conference. Pollard and Kirkpatrick adjusted and virtually spent the rest of the season throwing bullpen games and utilizing an entire staff– relying on unproven freshmen such as Andrew Healy, Owen Proksch, Aidan Weaver, Gabe Nard, and closer James Tallon. Sophomores Fran Oschell, Ryan Higgins, and Jimmy Romano were used early and often.

Perhaps Kirkpatrick’s greatest success, Charlie Beilenson, broke the Duke program record for appearances in a season with 39. An unheralded graduate transfer from Brown, Kirkpatrick transformed Beilenson into one of the best relievers in the country and Top 5 Round MLB Draft product the next season. As UVA fans know, Duke ended the season as one of the better teams in the ACC, earning a two-seed in the NCAA Tournament and winning the Conway Regional before falling one win short of Omaha in the Charlottesville Super Regional.

Prior to Duke, Kirkpatrick spent a year at Florida Atlantic and three years at Harvard. He itched in the ACC while at Maryland and was actually on the Terrapin squad that lost to Virginia in the 2014 Charlottesville Super Regional. After three years playing in College Park, the Eugene, Oregon native returned to the West Coast where he finished his career at San Diego.

Duke has been lauded over the last three years for their deep pitching staff and while Kirkpatrick’s 2025 coaching performance wasn’t quite as impressive as the incredible 2023 job, his in-season adjustments with the pitching staff were critical to Duke’s success.

Pollard pointed out that Duke had a completely different weekend rotation to start the season. Ryan Higgins, Kyle Johnson, and James Tallon started for the Blue Devils in mid-February and when things didn’t go as expected, Kirkpatrick had to make changes on the fly to keep Duke’s season afloat. Tallon and Johnson returned to the bullpen, while former closer Owen Proksch transitioned to a starting role midseason. The junior lefty had never started at the collegiate level until he took the mound in late March at Virginia. Within a month he was pitching like a veteran ACC ace and was in contention on multiple occasions for ACC Pitcher of the Week.

“We had to move Tallon to the back end and Kyle comes out of the rotation, goes to the bullpen, works on some things, comes back,” said Pollard after Duke’s game one Super Regional win. “Owen Proksch moves into the rotation. You take a freshman, Henry Zatkowski, who's pitching relief early and now he's pitching on the weekend.. It's a lot of different changes that we've had to make over the course of the year to get here. I’m incredibly proud of Brady.”

Proksch and Zatkowski were Duke’s most consistent starters this season and their addition to the weekend rotation sparked a turnaround for the Blue Devils. Add in Kirkpatrick’s midseason adjustments with Tallon and Kyle Johnson to get them back on track is a testament to his ability as a coach.

An underrated but important strength that Kirkpatrick possesses is his ability to call a game for his pitching staff. In the college level, most pitches are college by the pitching coach and relayed to the catcher, and Kirkpatrick is one of the best. 

“After the Georgia game, man, I just thought he called so many pitches in that game that just took huge guts,” Pollard said.  “They just take a lot of courage to go,’ I'm going to trust this guy to execute this pitch in this spot’. And I thought it was a brilliantly called pitching performance.”

Hitting coach Eric Tyler has likewise delivered time and time again over the last three seasons. In 2024, Duke entered the preseason with heightened expectations due to their vaunted pitching staff having reaped the benefits of experience the year prior. There was major concern, however, if the offense would be able to score enough runs given the turnover on that side of the ball.

Duke proceeded to shatter their home record for runs and home runs and captured the ACC Tournament Championship. Seven players hit over .300 on the year and Under Tyler’s tutelage, the Blue Devils have either broken or matched the school record for home runs. 

“This is the third year in a row we've had over 100 home runs,” said Pollard. “And we had to do it so different this year, where early on, this wasn't a team that was stringing hits together. We've had to be a team that grinds out of bats, try to get some free offense, and then run a ball out of the ballpark. [Tyler’s] ability to get a team ready offensively in a lot of different ways has been really impressive.”

Eric Tyler played at East Carolina for Cliff Godwin from 2014 until 2017, and served as a captain during his senior year. Tyler was a part of the East Carolina team that upset Virginia in the 2016 Charlottesville Regional, where he hit after batting .545 (6-for-11) with a home run, two RBI and three runs scored. Prior to taking over at Duke ahead of the 2023 season, he was a hitting instructor for four years at Baseball Rebellion in Durham.

Unless Oregon State draws more than 40 walks in this year’s College World Series, the Duke offense will finish as the nation’s leader. Tyler’s ability to use an individualistic approach and cultivate a specific player’s strength is what sets him apart. Duke’s offense has been one of the ACC’s best over the last three years and Tyler is the primary reason why.

Brian Sakowski was the Director of Recruiting, Analytics and Player Development and is instrumental in all three phases. Affectionately known to players and friends alike as “Sak”, the Michigan native previously worked as a National Crosschecker and Scouting Supervisor at Perfect Game while also working as an assistant coach at St. Mary’s Prep Academy in Orchard Lake, Michigan. 

Derek Simmons was the most recent addition to Pollard’s staff, coming over from Indiana prior to this past season. He served as the team’s third base coach while also working with hitters and infielders. As a recruiting coordinator at Indiana, he brought multiple Top 25 recruiting classes to Indiana and is one of the most respected assistant coaches in the country.

Chris Pollard is a fantastic coach himself, but the reason Virginia fans should be so excited is because he’s bringing his staff with him, allowing him to continue the success he had at Duke with more resources. And don’t be surprised if players such as Macon Winslow, Kyle Johnson, Sam Harris, Noah Murray, and AJ Gracia follow this staff to Charlottesville. The players love these guys.

Owen Proksch, following his outstanding start against Murray State in the Super Regional, made sure the media understood where Duke’s success came from.

“There's one more thing,” Proksch said after finishing the player portion of the post-game interview. “With the atmosphere, none of that would be here if it weren't for [Pollard]. He's built this place from a team that nobody expected anything from. And now, there’s lots of expectations. We've had a few good years in a row. And that's all because of the job that he's done here.”

Given what he’s done at Duke with less resources, t’s clear Virginia made a home run hire in Chris Pollard and this coaching staff. It’s going to be an exciting offseason in Charlottesville as they get to work transitioning this program back to national prominence after a one-year hiatus.