McDonnell tells people like it is. That authenticity has allowed him to bookend nearly two decades of coaching the Cards with trips to the MCWS.
OMAHA, NE. — When Dan McDonnell accepted the Louisville baseball head coaching job in June 2006, he was known as “one of the top young minds in college baseball.”
His reputation was that of an elite recruiter, someone who really knew how to handle athletes, then-athletics director Tom Jurich said upon McDonnell’s announcement. No other candidate was more prepared. No other candidate came more highly or widely recommended.
Nineteen years and six Men’s College World Series later, McDonnell doesn’t feel quite as sprightly as he was described back then. He considers himself a pretty “old school” guy, actually. Think Nick Saban, Mike Krzyzewski, Bill Parcells (and yes, McDonnell is about a generation younger than all three of them).
Down 3-2 in the sixth inning of an elimination game versus Arizona in the Men’s College World Series on Sunday, McDonnell knew it was time to tap into his old-school energy. To give his guys “a little tough love.” A “kick in the rear,” if you will.
“Believe me,” McDonnell said after the game, “there’s some words that will come out of my mouth, and there will be things my wife will not be happy that I necessarily say. But the kids know, man, I’m loving on them.”
That’s McDonnell. He tells people like it is. Tells them what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear. (And sometimes they really don’t want to hear it.) But that authenticity is what has allowed McDonnell to bookend nearly two decades of coaching the Cards with trips to the MCWS. Yes, he’s evolved with the times, but the core of who he is, of what Louisville baseball is, will always stay the same.
When Louisville clinched a spot in the super regionals with a 6-0 win over Wright State, McDonnell was overcome with emotion.
U of L had missed postseason baseball entirely the previous two seasons. Last summer, 15 players transferred out of the program, including All-ACC shortstop Gavin Kilen (Tennessee) and third baseman Brandon Anderson (Purdue). A decade-plus where success flowed like rapids slowed to a dribbling faucet over the last few years, and McDonnell, one of college baseball’s most successful coaches, began to question everything.
But up on that podium in Nashville, clarity washed over him. His voice trembled, and his eyes welled up with tears.
“My wife will tell ya, I’m not easy to deal with,” McDonnell said, scoffing, “when we’re losing.”
He described himself as trapped “in the valley,” unable to find a way out had it not been for his wife Julie, their faith in God and “super players.” He took the Cardinal red readers (which he did not need when he accepted the Louisville head coaching job as a bright-eyed 30-something) from around his neck and snapped them together at the bridge of his nose and began to read an excerpt from “The Path to Higher Life” by poet Andrew Murray.
“Down, lower down! Just as water always seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds men abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless.”
It was a very vulnerable, moving scene for a self-labeled “old school” kind of coach. But Chris Dominguez, former Louisville outfielder and current Miami assistant coach, wasn’t all that surprised. There’s more to McDonnell than his gruff, serious, competitive exterior.
He has layers to him.
His military school background, having played and coached at The Citadel from 1989-2000, shaped him into an ultra-organized disciplinarian. This is the first side of McDonnell that Dominguez met, as the rookie head coach traveled to Newport, where Dominguez was playing in the Collegiate League, to pitch him a new vision of the program.
The following spring, McDonnell guided Louisville to its first super regional in program history with a 16-6 win over No. 11 Missouri. Dominguez hit a first-inning grand slam and a three-run shot in the fourth. When everyone got back on the bus afterward, McDonnell jumped and danced in the aisle. Between the excitement and all the time that’s passed since then, Dominguez couldn’t remember what song McDonnell was grooving to. But it’s a memory Dominguez said sums McDonnell’s personality up perfectly.
“He’s calm when he needs to be,” Dominguez told The Courier Journal, “but he’s definitely emotional.”
Part of what makes McDonnell so good at what he does is his ability to motivate players. Back in the 2000s, it was movie quotes (like “Well, we didn’t get dressed up for nothing” from “Braveheart”) and Dan-isms like “the will to win.”
In the 2020s, it’s much of the same. But it’s also firing off frequent texts to individual players because he knows “that’s their language.” It’s shifting from a “because I said so” philosophy to a “let me tell you why” mindset. It’s recognizing that he needs to be more patient, “which is not a gift of mine,” McDonnell confesses, but he tries his best anyway.
“They definitely keep me young,” McDonnell told The Courier Journal. “Just by their music, by their language, by their personalities, by their energy. I think the blessing that I’ve had is I’ve been around 18- to 22-year-olds for like, 30-plus years. I think it’s really cool.”
They’ve almost certainly contributed one or two gray hairs, but these Cards have imbued McDonnell a lot of wisdom, too. The biggest lesson they’ve taught him:
You do you, coach.
“This team has shown me, ‘You ain’t forgot how to coach,’” McDonnell said. “It doesn’t mean I’m not immune to making changes and adjustments, but it’s more about the way the system and the program and the things that we’re preaching are still most important.”
How to buy Louisville baseball tickets for College World Series
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Courier Journal reporter Alexis Cubit contributed to this report.
Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.
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