Kevin O'Sullivan praises Florida fans for support through College World Series

Following the loss to LSU in the College World Series, Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan took the time to thank Florida fans for their support throughout the team’s run in Omaha.

As O’Sullivan explained, he’ll never forget the fans singing along to Tom Petty while the Gators blew out LSU on Sunday.

“You’re talking about Florida fans?” Kevin O’Sullivan said. “Oh yeah, it was great. It was great. I’ll never forget yesterday after the game, when they started playing Tom Petty. It was really cool. I actually came out and took a video of it. But to be part of that was awesome.”

On Monday, Florida was blown out to end the College World Series. This was a disappointing end to an incredible run. As O’Sullivan explained, these runs can be challenging for fans who want to go, but don’t know when games will be or if their team is even going to make it.

“I mean, it’s not easy. I mean, the unknown if you’re going to get here and all of a sudden you’ve got to make plans at the last second, flights and hotels. And so I do appreciate all the fans that came out. It’s not only time-consuming but it costs a lot of money to come out here, too,” O’Sullivan said.

“But we certainly appreciate all the fans that came out and supported us back at home as well.”

Kevin O’Sullivan says this team got Florida back to where it belongs

The goal at Florida is to make it to Omaha every season. However, that hadn’t happened since 2018. So, after the season ended, Kevin O’Sullivan praised his team for getting back to where the program feels like it belongs.

“Yeah, anytime you come out to a World Series and have the run we had the foundation is set. I kind of struggle with the program was in a tough spot or whatever. It’s very hard to do this every year. So we go on the run for four years, from ’15 through ’18, and then obviously ’19 was a different year because we were younger. And then in ’20, that was taken away from us because of COVID,” O’Sullivan said.

“And we’re 16-1. And then last year it really started to pick up speed again. So it was really ’19 was the year we weren’t as good as we wanted to be. Because ’20 we were but the season was shortened. Last year we hosted a Regional when we were 6-12 in the league and we get going again. And this year is obviously a different year. But these guys have certainly got us back to where we need to be. And quite honestly, the expectations are to get to Omaha and play for a national championship.”