After a season for the history books, Duke's baseball coach is no longer with the program. The Blue Devils' head coach, Chris Pollard, was just named as the Virginia Cavaliers' newest HC after leading Duke to a Super Regional appearance and a 41-21 overall record.
Now, Pollard is heading north to coach the Cavaliers, a program that clinched its first-ever College World Series title in 2015.
Pollard was the Blue Devils' coach for over a decade, taking over the program in 2013, and led the program to 420 wins, with just 295 losses. During his tenure with the team, he took Duke to three Super Regional appearances and seven total trips to the postseason.
BREAKING: Virginia has hired Duke's Chris Pollard as its next head baseball coach, per @PeteNakos_⚔️ https://t.co/xjJrh03hDA pic.twitter.com/67ZEPtnqlC
— On3 (@On3sports) June 10, 2025
In both 2021 and 2024, the Blue Devils won the ACC Tournament, but never secured the regular season conference title during Pollard's reign.
This year, Pollard helped lead Duke to a 3-0 performance at the Athens Regional, defeating the Oklahoma State Cowboys once and the Georgia Bulldogs twice. Then, the Blue Devils hosted a Super Regional where they fell to the Murray State Racers 1-2.
Virginia failed to qualify for the 2025 NCAA Tournament after finishing the regular season with a 32-17 overall record and then losing to Boston College in the first round of this year's ACC Tournament. Previously, the Cavaliers had won the regular-season (1972, 2010, & 2011) and the ACC tournament ACC titles three times each (1996, 2009, & 2011).
On3's Pete Nakos first reported the news that Pollard was leaving the Blue Devils to become the newest leader of the Virginia baseball program. Pollard replaced former Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor, who was hired by Mississippi State earlier in the offseason.
Nakos also shared that Pollard was taking his former Duke recruiting director, Derek Simmons, with him to Virginia.