Dan McDonnell Louisville vs. Boston College Baseball 4-8-2023, Photo by William Caudill, TheCrunchZone.com

Dan McDonnell Very Vocal About Changes Needed Following Season-Ending Loss to FSU

Mark BlankenbakerMay 22, 2023

As Louisville Baseball’s final game of the 2023 Louisville Head Baseball Coach Dan McDonnell was asked about whether or not he expected to be back as UofL’s Baseball coach in 2024. Dan has annually been linked to open jobs in the SEC and elsewhere.

Coach McDonnell’s response was immediately about things ‘being different’ and also challenged the administration to commit to Louisville Baseball. To be clear, Coach McDonnell is the 9th highest paid baseball coach in the country. But Dan isn’t complaining about compensation.

The INDOOR Facility

McDonnell is pushing the program and the administration to come through on an indoor facility that was announced in the winter of 2020.

Of course, March of 2020 derailed a number of university initiatives throughout the country in the wake of COVID. But UofL announced a lead gift of $3Million from Kroger to help pay for the $12M facility in April of 2021. Coach McDonnell is doing what every coach in the country should be doing, advocating for their program. And UofL with financial difficulties with coaching buyouts and diminished returns in football & men’s basketball some projects had to take a pause. The indoor facility is one of those.

After losing to Texas A&M last June in the Super Regional, McDonnell was emphatic on 93.9 saying “DECIDE. I want to see shovels in the ground.”

The Two Other Main Issues

Two other issues at the heart of McDonnell’s message: NIL & Full Cost of Attendance (Alston Money)

Every coach in the country is looking to attract the best players and while most of the NIL opportunities are going to the major sports like College Football & Men’s Basketball. Louisville has the unique NIL strain as it strives to be competitive in Men’s Baseball & Women’s Basketball where the most interested (or committed) programs are throwing their collective weight around. The 502 Circle is ramping up and this is a way fans with discretionary income can help Louisville Athletics at-large.
Alston Money, also known as the Full Cost of Attendance, at UofL is paid out proportionally according to the amount of scholarship given to the player. D1 College Baseball teams get 11.7 scholarships meaning that most UofL Baseball players have to pay a great deal in order to go to school. Many of the teams Dan McDonnell is recruiting against provide a full cost of attendance to its baseball players regardless of how much of their scholarship is allocated.

Here is Dan’s full quote:

“I always expect to be here. But I’m not going to shy away, I’ve been very vocal the past few years. We got back from Texas A&M you can listen to my interview on the radio, on 93.9 I was very vocal. If you came to my lead off banquet there was some clear messages in that lead off banquet. I’m not get into it now, but I’ve been very vocal and challenging over the last 12 months. Look at the writing on the wall. Look at where this program has been and you walk around, you walk through the dugout, you walk into the stadium. You see what differently have we done since 2000-whatever. We want to be here, we love it here. But again I want to work for people and be with people and a group that want to win as well. Don’t tell me want to win. SHOW ME YOU WANT TO WIN. That’s all I ask for. And I think our fans ask for that. I think our players ask for that. I’ve been recruiting these kids and they’ve been committed since their 8th, 9th, 10th grade year. Well…. they showed up on campus and they haven’t been seeing a lot different. They said it was going to be different. We promised it was going to be different. But it is not different. So….. you know, as my phrase was at the leadoff banquet: Are you interested? Or are you committed? I want to be at a place that is committed. When it is all said and done. Because the kids were recruited to be at a place that’s committed. Ultimately we are trying to get to Omaha and win a national championship. It ain’t going to happen unless we make a bold commitment.

Dan’s comments were at 11:45 mark below