‘This kind of clears the path’ – Razorbacks insider shares the latest on whether Tony Vitello leaving MLB for Arkansas could happen
Former Tennessee Volunteers head coach Tony Vitello is in his first season as the manager of the San Francisco Giants, and there’s already speculation about whether he misses college baseball.
Former Tennessee Vols head coach Tony Vitello is in a situation with the San Francisco Giants that we’ve never seen before in MLB.
Vitello was the first coach in the modern era to make the jump from college baseball directly into a manager’s role without having previous big league experience.
When college football head coaches make the jump to the NFL, it usually doesn’t work out — and those coaches usually return to college fairly quickly (Nick Saban, Matt Rhule, Steve Spurrier, etc). There are exceptions, but more often than not, the experiment doesn’t work out.
But because Vitello is a trailblazer in MLB, we don’t have any similar situations to compare.
There is plenty of speculation, however, on how Vitello’s run in MLB will play out.
Quite a few folks believe Vitello, due to the Giants’ early season struggles, will eventually return to college baseball. And if he does, the Arkansas Razorbacks could be a team to watch (Vitello spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Arkansas before landing the Tennessee job).
Arkansas insider shares thoughts on whether Tony Vitello could take the Razorbacks’ head coaching job when Dave Van Horn calls it a career
Andrew Ellis of Inside Arkansas joined Fox Sports Knoxville this week and shared some insight on Vitello and the Razorbacks.
“If you had asked me 365 days ago, I would have maybe bet my life that Tony Vitello was going to be the next head coach at Arkansas,” said Ellis. “And then when he went to San Francisco, I was like, honestly, I feel better about it. I feel like this kind of clears the path (for Vitello to go to Arkansas). Because it’s harder to go from Tennessee directly to Arkansas than it is to go from MLB, where it’s not working out super well for him — he’s probably just kind of biding his time before he comes back to college.
“Timing wise, I think it’s extremely possible that we look up in two years and (current Arkansas head coach) Dave (Van Horn) is like, ‘Alright, I’m going to call it a day,’ and that’s about when Tony will get bored at his new gig. I kind of feel like there is a path to that. But lately, at least from the Arkansas side, I’ve heard much less Tony Vitello buzz than ever before. Whereas, last year when Arkansas played Tennessee in the super regional, and Tony’s crying in the press conference, because he’s like, ‘Man, I miss those guys at Arkansas, I love those guys,’ in those moments, I was all in (on Vitello to Arkansas). And I’ve heard that for years. Tony, I feel like, is a guy that he knows what he’s doing with everything he does. Anytime he talks to people from Arkansas, I feel like he almost intentionally makes it clear he loves the program, loves Fayetteville, and could totally see himself being there. But that could just be Tony being Tony.”
That’s a lot to unpack.
Off the top, though, I’ll say this: I think Vitello is completely in the moment and all-in with the Giants right now. I don’t think he’s thinking about anything other than his current job.
Now, with that said, I do think Vitello to Arkansas could be something to seriously watch in the future. And before you start rolling your eyes or calling that a hot take or clickbait or whatever you want to call it, I’d like to remind you that almost exactly two years ago I warned fans that Vitello to MLB was a scenario to keep an eye on. A lot of folks scoffed at that take, but it turned out to be spot-on (I’m not tooting my own horn here, I’ve had plenty of takes that aged poorly…that’s just part of covering sports).
So this Arkansas thing, well, I think there’s a scenario where it could happen. That doesn’t mean it will happen, but it could.
I think it’s possible Vitello gets through this season and realizes that the 162-game schedule, and the fact that his spring, summer, and fall have about seven open slots on his personal calendar will lead to him missing the flexibility of the college baseball schedule.
Vitello is an elite competitor and a baseball lifer. But he’s more than just that. He likes to go to concerts, he likes to travel, he has friends who are actors (Vitello revealed to Chris Rose this week that he once crashed an audition). Vitello, essentially, is a bit of a renaissance man. And even though he’s a baseball guy to his core, the MLB schedule may not be what’s best for him as a person.
Of course, it’s also possible that Vitello thrives in MLB and never returns to college. None of us know how all of this will go for Vitello.
But if the Giants continue to struggle over the next year or two, and if Dave Van Horn — someone Vitello is still close with (he asked Van Horn for advice about taking the Giants job) — steps down at Arkansas, then I think it would definitely be a scenario that could come to fruition.