Tennessee Begins Coach Search After Vitello Leaves

Tony Vitello has left Tennessee after eight seasons to become the San Francisco Giants’ manager, the first sitting college coach to move directly to an MLB managerial job. At Tennessee he went 341-131, won the 2024 national championship and sent more than 50 players to professional baseball. Athletic director Danny White called the job one of the top three in the country and said he will launch a national search while moving quickly to limit uncertainty for players. Frank Anderson, a veteran pitching coach with more than 40 years in college baseball, has been named interim head coach. Associate head coach Josh Elander is a leading internal candidate with strong player and fan support, though Tennessee is expected to consider external names such as Oregon’s Mark Wasikowski and Kansas’ Dan Fitzgerald. Reactions have been broadly congratulatory, including a brief “Happy for him” from Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin, even as the Vols begin the search to replace the coach who transformed the program into a national power.