Brian O'Connor assesses Jay Woolfolk's season, how he balanced baseball with football

Virginia two-sport star Jay Woolfolk has a busy life to say the least. But being busy is the expected norm when you are playing two sports at the Division I level.

During the fall, Woolfolk suits up in pads and a helmet for the Cavaliers football team as a quarterback. But during the other half of the school year, Woolfolk is a relief pitcher for Virginia.

After Woolfolk’s second year on campus ended Sunday in the Men’s College World Series, Cavaliers head coach Brian O’Connor evaluated the sophomore’s spring on the diamond.

“Jay Woolfolk has a lot of talent,” O’Connor said. “This is the first year that he was required to go to football practice all spring. And I’m sure that took a toll on him a little bit that — there’s not many young men in America that are doing what he was doing — in the spring, competing for the starting football job and being a pitcher. There’s guys that do it that compete at quarterback, but they’re not a pitcher. They’re an offensive player and things like that.”

In two seasons with the football team, Woolfolk has played in nine games with one start. He was the first true freshman to start a game at quarterback for the Cavaliers since 1977 when Virginia played Notre Dame on Nov. 13, 2021. Woolfolk threw for 196 yards during the game, the most by a true freshman in program history.

Woolfolk finished the 2023 baseball season with 30 appearances out of the bullpen as the team’s closer with a team-high nine saves. In 34.0 innings, Woolfolk had 38 strikeouts, a 2.91 ERA and a .203 batting average against. As a freshman, Woolfolk pitched in 29 games with a 2.87 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 37.2 innings.

He pitched in both of Virginia’s games during the Men’s College World Series in Omaha.

This summer, Woolfolk is set to participate in USA Baseball’s training camp for its collegiate national team. The training camp will last from June 25-29 with 26 players making the team, which will play games over the next two weeks versus national teams from Chinese Taipei and Japan.

“Today was great for Jay,” O’Connor said. “Obviously I put him in a challenging situation in the Florida game, but I put him in because I had confidence in him that maybe he’d get a strikeout or ground ball. That’s what this situation dictated. But I’m excited for his opportunity with USA this summer. And I think that next year can be a terrific year for him in our uniform.”