There’s going to be a lot of chatter over the next few days about Tony Vitello and his future as the Tennessee Vols‘ head baseball coach.
Vitello has done an incredible job at Tennessee. In his fourth season with the Vols, Vitello has Tennessee in the SEC Championship game for the first time since 1995. He also led the Volunteers to their first SEC East division title since 1997.
Thanks to Vitello’s success at UT, he could be a hot commodity in the coming days.
Texas A&M and LSU — two extremely prestigious baseball programs — are both looking for new head coaches. It doesn’t appear that Vitello is at the top of the list for either program, but he’s certainly a name to watch in both searches.
I tend to think that Vitello will end up remaining in Knoxville. But we’ve seen plenty of situations before where a program’s third or fourth choice ends up being the hire.
Oddly enough, that was the situation with Vitello and Tennessee.
The Vols were close to hiring South Alabama’s Mark Calvi in 2017 to replace Dave Serrano.
Tennessee got deep into contract talks with Calvi in 2017 before the negotiation eventually fell apart.
D1 Baseball’s Kendall Rogers reported at the time that Calvi was “the guy” for the Vols.
“I was offered the job by Tennessee yesterday and turned it down,” said Calvi in 2017 (via AL.com). “I have a great boss. I love it here. I don’t just jump at anything. The right things matter to me.”
After Calvi turned the job down, the Vols turned to Vitello, then an assistant at Arkansas, and the rest is history.
If Texas A&M or LSU focus decide to focus on Vitello, then it could be tough for Tennessee to keep Vitello on Rocky Top.
UT athletic director Danny White needs to be proactive here and promise Vitello whatever it takes to make sure the dynamic baseball coach stays in Knoxville.
Featured image via Twitter.com/USAJaguars.com
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May 30, 2021 at 02:48PM
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Tony Vitello wasn't Tennessee's first choice to replace Dave Serrano - atozsportsnashville.com
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