Tennessee baseball fans get a reason to be nervous ahead of NCAA Tournament
On Sunday, Tennessee Vols baseball fans received a reason to be nervous about the program ahead of the NCAA Tournament. And it has nothing to do with anything that happens on the field. The Missouri Tigers fired head coach Steve Bieser on Sunday. Missouri is the alma mater of Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello.Vitello was […]
On Sunday, Tennessee Vols baseball fans received a reason to be nervous about the program ahead of the NCAA Tournament.
And it has nothing to do with anything that happens on the field.
The Missouri Tigers fired head coach Steve Bieser on Sunday.
Missouri is the alma mater of Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello.
Vitello was a middle infielder for the Tigers from 2000 to 2002. He was then an assistant coach for Missouri from 2003 to 2010.
In 2016, Vitello interviewed for the head coaching job at Missouri. The Tigers, however, wanted someone with prior head coaching experience, something that Vitello, an assistant at Arkansas at the time, didn't have.
Missouri hired Bieser over Vitello in 2016, despite the fact that former Tigers pitcher and future MLB Hall of Famer Max Scherzer wanted the program to hire Vitello.
It's inevitable that Vitello's name will be connected to Missouri's search for a new head coach.
But that doesn't mean that Vitello, a St. Louis native, is going to jump at the chance to leave Tennessee for Missouri. The Tigers, however, would be foolish to not gauge Vitello's interest in the job.
Vitello has built something special at Tennessee. And even though the 2023 season wasn't as successful as the 2022 season (at least the regular season wasn't), it's still obvious that UT baseball is among the top programs in the nation and that should consistently be the case moving forward.
Since arriving at Tennessee in 2017, Vitello has embraced everything about the Vols. He's often spotted at football games and basketball games wildly supporting the program. Missouri might be his alma mater, but it certainly looks like Tennessee is Vitello's home — and it doesn't feel like that's changing anytime soon.
Still, it's understandable for fans to be on edge a bit with the Missouri job open. You never know what could happen, but it would be surprising to see Vitello seriously entertain the idea of leaving Knoxville for Columbia.
