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Tennessee baseball: Watch Tony Vitello’s introductory press conference as Vols new head coach

By Caleb Calhoun

Jan 14, 2017; Nashville, TN, USA; The Tennessee Volunteers logo is seen on a stool at Memorial Gymnasium before a NCAA basketball game against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 14, 2017; Nashville, TN, USA; The Tennessee Volunteers logo is seen on a stool at Memorial Gymnasium before a NCAA basketball game against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports /
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Vols Athletic Director John Currie introduced new Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello in a press conference Friday. Watch a video of that here.

The Tennessee baseball program has a new head coach a little over two weeks after Dave Serrano completed his 10-year tenure with the Vols. John Currie introduced Tony Vitello in a press conference at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

Currie sold Vitello’s track record as an elite recruiter, his experience under three elite head coaches, the number of players he’s turned into MLB players, and the 12 NCAA Tournaments he has participated in along with an appearance at the College World Series.

See the full press conference here.

Vitello’s track record as a recruiter and with coaching experience in his family does prepare him for the job. He should be as prepared as anybody.

However, as we all know, there is a lot more to head coaching. And despite his success with the Arkansas Razorbacks, TCU Horned Frogs and Missouri Tigers (his alma mater), his lack of head coaching experience still makes him a major question mark.

We know from the experience with Derek Dooley that pedigree is completely irrelevant if you can’t win games on the field.

But given the Tennessee baseball history, it was not a bad idea for Currie to take a chance on Vitello.

One thing Vitello does understand is that the SEC is an extremely hard conference to win in. He even addressed that as a reason for the struggles of the Tennessee baseball program.

But to fix it, he just went to continuity and recruiting. Again, those things are important, but he also has to prove he can be a motivator as a head coach.

And as Dave Serrano proved, you have to have the right system for the league too. His small ball style unfortunately failed in the conference.

Vitello wasn’t able to prove anything with his press conference on Friday. Only time will tell how good he is.

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