The Tennessee Vols are officially in the market for a new head baseball coach after Tony Vitello agreed to become the San Francisco Giants’ new manager this week.

Vitello was hired by Tennessee in 2017. He was a relatively unknown assistant when he was hired by the Vols, before becoming the sport’s biggest coaching star.

The former Missouri infielder is the first college coach to be hired as an MLB manager without having previous MLB experience as a player or coach.

Vols insider gives the latest on UT assistant coach Josh Elander and Tennessee’s search for a baseball coach

Many former Vols players have endorsed UT associate head coach/recruiting coordinator Josh Elander as the best option to replace Vitello.

Elander, who played college baseball at TCU and spent four seasons in the minor leagues, has been on staff at Tennessee since 2017 (he came with Vitello from Arkansas).

Tennessee athletic director Danny White confirmed this week that Elander will be a candidate for the job as the Vols conduct a nationwide search for a new coach.

VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs joined 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will on Friday, and he shared the latest on where this coaching search stands (which is still in the very early stages).

“I think there’s certainly people in the university who believe that Josh Elander can do this job, that he is ready to do this job,” said Hubbs. “And they feel that Josh Elander is a guy whose time has come to get an opportunity. And I think it’s important to note that, and I think this is why the interview process is so important for Josh Elander — and I think Danny White spoke of this. Josh Elander has to make it clear to those who don’t know him in this process — and Danny White acknowledged that he’s not close to Josh Elander — that Josh Elander is his own person.

“He’s not Tony Vitello 2.0. And if he were to get this job, fans have to understand that. But he also has to make that clear to everybody in the interview process — that he’s going to do it his way. He has to have a plan. He has to make sure everybody understands that plan. That’s not because nobody wants a Vitello person around. I don’t think there’s anything like that. I think it’s a situation where Josh Elander has to be Josh Elander, and he has to make it clear that he is Josh Elander. He’s not what the previous guy was in that way. So certainly, he’s a candidate for the job.”

Hubbs made a tremendously important point about Elander. If Elander gets the job, the only way he’ll have success is if he’s true to himself. He’s not Vitello, and he can’t try to be a carbon copy of Vitello. There would likely be traces of Vitello’s influence on Elander. But the only way for Elander to be successful in that job (if he gets it) is to be the best version of himself.

As for White’s process of looking for a new coach, Hubbs thinks White will cast a wide net and make sure he’s not overlooking any options.

“Danny White is going to look around the country and see what else is out there and talk to other people,” said Hubbs. “I think he’ll talk to people who are at Power-Four schools at a big level with a bigger budget. I think he’ll talk to people at smaller schools that have a smaller budget, and I think they’ll work through this process. And I think Danny White will be diligent. This is a very different hire than it would have been, you know, even four years ago [with] where baseball is in terms of the financial commitment, where it is in terms of the passion of the fan base.

“Now, Danny White’s got to get this hire right, whoever that is. He’s got to get it right. And the fan base and the players — you would hope the players would give the new person a chance, whoever that is. And certainly you want your Tennessee fan base to give the new person a chance, too — and not just say, well, he’s not the guy. But we’ll see. I think this will go pretty quick, because signing day is coming up. I think they’ve got to get to a point pretty quickly through this process here. So I don’t think it’ll be a long, drawn-out search.”

White will likely keep this search as quiet as possible. For some reason, he thinks that being super secretive is an advantage, when that approach just leads to rampant speculation and causes bizarre rumors to take off. That means Vols fans will probably be left in the dark until a hire is officially made.

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Tony Vitello invokes Lane Kiffin while discussing his decision to leave Tennessee for the San Francisco Giants

Tony Vitello left Tennessee this week to become the new manager of the San Francisco Giants.

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