The North Florida Ospreys turned Jacksonville into one of the most entertaining shows in mid-major basketball — and now they're writing the next chapter with a new voice on the bench. In May 2025, Matthew Driscoll, the winningest coach in program and Atlantic Sun Conference history, departed after sixteen seasons. His replacement: Bobby Kennen, Driscoll's very first hire back in 2009, a seventeen-year UNF veteran who was elevated from associate head coach to lead the program into the 2025-26 season and beyond.
Continuity is the bet. Kennen was on the bench for everything — the "Birds of Trey" era, the three ASUN regular-season championships, the first Dance. He helped Driscoll become the winningest coach in league history. Now the program's identity — pace, space, and a joyful, full-throttle barrage of three-pointers — stays in the family. When the threes are falling, nobody in the league can stay on the floor with the Ospreys, and Kennen has no intention of changing the math that made UNF appointment television.
The breakthrough came in 2015, when North Florida won the ASUN tournament and earned the program's first NCAA tournament berth. The Ospreys drew Robert Morris in the First Four in Dayton and came up short, but the banner was forever — the first Dance in school history, and validation for Driscoll's high-octane vision. That season also produced the program's best record ever at 23-11, an ASUN regular-season title, and a December road win at Purdue — the first victory over a Big Ten opponent in school history. The encore was even louder: the 2015-16 Ospreys opened with a 93-81 upset at Illinois, the program's second Big Ten road win.
Dallas Moore was the program's first true star: the guard led the Ospreys' high-octane attack from 2014 to 2017, becoming the ASUN's most feared scorer and the face of Birds of Trey. His brilliance made UNF appointment television — and made the 2015 breakthrough possible. UNF teams have routinely ranked among the national leaders in three-point attempts, playing a style that's as fun to watch as it is hard to prepare for. In a one-bid league, being the team nobody wants to face in March is a superpower.
Kennen's first act as head coach set a tone: a Division I program-record 122 points in his first win, against New College of Florida. The message was clear — the pace stays, the threes stay, the fun stays. And the schedule stays brutal, too. North Florida opened the 2025-26 season at defending national champion Florida, then lined up Tennessee, Gonzaga, Dayton and Miami on the road, with home dates against 2025 Ohio Valley champion SIU Edwardsville and Ivy League Columbia. Five 2025 NCAA Tournament participants, four conference champions. "North Florida is no stranger to a challenging non-conference slate," Kennen said. "It will prepare our program for the rigor of the deep and highly competitive ASUN Conference."
The 2025-26 roster was built around senior guard Kamrin Oriol, the St. Petersburg native who became the go-to guy after a winding road that included a stop at The Master's University in California. Oriol was the top returning scorer at 7.3 points per game — one of seven returners carrying just 11.8 returning points per game total — and he embraced the vocal-leadership role head-on. "I've worked my whole life for it," he said before the season. In a program defined by its system, the next star is always one hot shooting month away.
UNF Arena in Jacksonville is a modern mid-major gem: 5,800 seats, opened in 1993, loud when full, and the perfect stage for the Ospreys' three-point barrage. And the "River City Rumble" rivalry with crosstown Jacksonville University gives the city a genuine college basketball derby — two schools, one city, a real dislike that makes every meeting an event. The Ospreys and Dolphins play for Jacksonville, and neither gives an inch.
The goal, as Kennen put it when the schedule was announced, is March 8th and the ASUN Championship. Everything — the gauntlet non-conference slate, the Pensacola multi-team event, the depth he praised at ASUN Tipoff — is preparation for three days in March when the league's automatic bid is on the line. The Ospreys have been there before. The new coach was on the bench for it.
What defines the Ospreys is the three-ball, the 2015 breakthrough, and now the succession. Birds of Trey, a first Dance, a coach who learned the whole operation from the inside, and a program that plays the prettiest basketball in Florida. In Jacksonville, the Ospreys let it fly — and the nets keep paying the price.
December is where Kennen’s scheduling philosophy gets tested: a West Coast swing through Gonzaga on December 7 and a road date at Dayton on December 13, followed by Miami on December 21 — three programs that treat December home games as tune-ups and UNF as a dangerous one. Sprinkled between are the program’s first-ever meetings with Tennessee, New College of Florida and Columbia, plus home dates with Trinity Baptist and SIU Edwardsville. It is a slate designed to forge a team before league play, and in the ASUN, where the automatic bid is everything, the Ospreys would rather be battle-tested than rested.