Quote from Tony Vitello shows exactly why the Tennessee Vols baseball program is elite
The Tennessee Vols are the lone remaining undefeated team in college baseball after their win against West Georgia on Tuesday. Florida State, the other remaining undefeated team entering the week, lost to Florida on Tuesday night. Tennessee's been on an incredible run over the last five years. The Volunteers have become a national college baseball […]
The Tennessee Vols are the lone remaining undefeated team in college baseball after their win against West Georgia on Tuesday.
Florida State, the other remaining undefeated team entering the week, lost to Florida on Tuesday night.
Tennessee's been on an incredible run over the last five years. The Volunteers have become a national college baseball powerhouse under Tony Vitello and the program is showing no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
After Tennessee's win against West Georgia, Vitello explained why the Vols have been so successful in recent years.
Talent is obviously important, but there are a lot of talented teams in the SEC. Tennessee's great vibes, however, are the separator.
"Guys [are] starting to figure out that if you’re looking to break some sort of freshman record or all-time record or to be out there every single inning, every single at-bat, it’s probably not a good team to be on," said Vitello. "But if you like being on a team that’s good vibes and having success and there’s enough food on the table for you to eat, too — especially if you’re one of the guys that’s maybe a little higher up on the depth chart — then you’re in the right place.
"And they seem to kind of have that attitude because I mean, you guys haven’t asked about it, but you could ask about why isn’t this guy play today? He’s pretty good. Or that guy or this guy. We’ll get there by the end of the season. We’ll have fresher bodies and more experienced players and hopefully still have those same good vibes.”
Baseball, perhaps more than any other sport, is all about the vibes. Elite talent usually doesn't play at an elite level if the vibes are off.
Being a college coach is probably harder than it's ever been. And that's not just because of NIL deals and the NCAA transfer portal. This is the age of individualism in youth sports — especially in baseball. Players often grow up focused on making themselves attractive as recruits instead of just being a team player and letting the talent speak for itself. That kind of mindset can be challenging to coach when these players get to college and suddenly they aren't the best player on the team anymore, or they aren't playing as much as they're used to.
Vitello, though, does a marvelous job of helping young players keep their personal expectations in check while buying into Tennessee's all-hands-on-deck approach to winning games.
It sounds easy, but it's not. That's why Vitello is an elite baseball coach. I'm not sure there's anyone in the country that can do it better than Vitello's doing it these days.