Before Tony Vitello resigned as the head coach of the Tennessee Vols to become the new manager of the San Francisco Giants, he called up one of his mentors for some advice.

Prior to taking over as Tennessee’s head coach in 2017, Vitello spent four seasons as an assistant at Arkansas under Dave Van Horn, a three-time SEC coach of the year.

Vitello called Van Horn for advice as he decided whether to leave Tennessee for MLB.

Dave Van Horn details the conversation he had with Tony Vitello

Van Horn appeared on Pig Trail Nation on Friday, and he briefly discussed Vitello’s decision to give MLB a shot.

“With Tony, he just called and said, ‘What do you think? Do you think I’m crazy?’” said Van Horn. “And I had a lot to say. But I said, ‘Bottom line, what do you want to do?’ I don’t think he was super happy with what was going on over there. I think it was more not about the University of Tennessee — it’s a great university. It was more about dealing with agents and dealing with all of that, trying to win, put a team on the field, and the stuff that we deal with. And I just said, ‘Hey, you’re 45 years old,’ or whatever he is (Vitello is 47). ‘If you want to take a shot at pro ball, here’s your shot. If it doesn’t work, you can always come back.’

“And that’s the way he felt. He called me the other day, and he said, ‘Hey, by the way, our very first game, we play the Yankees. It’s the only game of the day, and they’re going to put us on Netflix.’ So he said, ‘Everybody will be watching.’ I said, ‘Hey, it’ll be a good memory for you, win or lose.’”

There’s been plenty of speculation that Vitello left Tennessee in part because he didn’t have the best relationship with Vols athletic director Danny White.

“I think for Tennessee fans, they were always hopeful that Tony would stay,” said On3’s Chris Low in October. “But being in the major leagues, that’s quite an opportunity for a college coach to get that type of opportunity and really be a pioneer. And I think over the last couple years, if you’re inside and sort of know what’s going on, this probably wasn’t just a complete surprise to a lot of people — certainly [people] close to the program — that there had not been what I would call the best relationships between Tony and Danny White, the Tennessee AD. And I think when you combine all of it — I don’t think it was just one thing — but when you combine all of it, what happened yesterday, happened.

“I think as people sort of think back through (the Vitello era), it now, and what it was like, there’s a lot of sadness,” continued Low. “I know, Danny White said it was a proud day. I disagree. It was a sad day, because I don’t think this had to happen. I think there was a way for this not to happen, and it happened. I think that’s what people are most upset, sad, and angry [about] — all the different emotions.”

Vitello addressed his relationship with White in November during an appearance on 104.5 The Zone’s 3HL.

The answer Vitello gave, though, didn’t do much to quiet the noise about his relationship with White.

“I mean, that part’s crazy,” said Vitello. “Because Danny is the athletic director, and I’m the baseball coach. We’re not drinking [buddies] — we’re not meeting on Broadway and going to see different shows.

“The communication that I had going on was heavily trying to figure out where exactly the San Francisco Giants were coming from. And there’s kind of a pecking order — a system that’s set up on campus. And our strength coach is pretty close with one of the administrators, and he was somebody that was good to talk about with some things, in particular, the future of the program once things pushed forward.”

While it’s certainly possible, if not likely, that Vitello’s relationship with White was part of the reason he left Rocky Top for San Francisco, Van Horn’s comments are a reminder that the current atmosphere in college athletics — specifically the transfer portal and NIL — is something that many coaches simply don’t want to deal with.

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