Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello during a college baseball game between Tennessee and Vanderbilt at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on May 9, 2025. Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Tony Vitello Says One SEC School Makes 'Undercover Offers' to Tennessee Players

Originally posted on Tennessee Volunteers on SI
By Brooks Austin | Last updated Jul 9, 2025 2:27 PM ET

Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello noted that one SEC baseball program is making undercover offers to his roster.

The Tennessee Volunteers' 2025 season and national title defense didn’t go as planned. They finished short of Omaha for the first time in three years. Since, head coach Tony Vitello has watched 25 players on his roster enter the transfer portal in what is a strange time in college sports with regard to roster transition.

The sport seems to turn it’s best rosters over at an extremely high rate. Though, 20 of the 25 players that have departed were pitchers, including LHP, Dylan Loy.

Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello was on with SportsTalk with John and Vince on Wednesday and spoke about the overall roster management they’ve undergone over the last several months.

"Yeah, there's one school in our league that likes to make undercover offers to guys, and our two or three guys that were on the end of that have stayed strong. I think in general, there are extra conversations these days, however, you want to frame them. I don't think that's really been an issue for us. Knock on all kinds of wood.”

Vitello went on to discuss the three category of players that he speaks with during this time of the year.

For the Full Interview visit SportsTalkOn991 HERE: (LINK)

"Then there's some guys every year you have a conversation with of just, 'I don't know that you're ready if you want to play. This is what the future maybe holds,' and it's just not the right thing for whatever reason, timing, whatever it might be.” In other words, a player that’s seeking playing time and it’s likely unavailable here.

"And then there's some guys this summer, to be honest with you, where we've said, it's kind of the summer of cover your own, or CYA, if you want to say that, cover your own butt. And we're doing that, and you may need to do that. A couple of those guys, we put a lot of time in, and I wasn't too excited to tell them that, but we couldn't wait till July 20 after the draft or August.”

He went on to explain that Tennessee isn't a baseball program where "demands" on playing time will ever be a thing.

"And then you got the final category that I think you kind of alluded to this a little bit, too. It hasn't been a major issue for us… Again, knock on a lot of wood, but I'll use Robin Villeneuve instead of pointing to somebody this year. There's been at least a little bit of a gap. Whether it was him or his father, they wanted him to be guaranteed to be the first baseman. I thought Robin would start for us every day. He was Texas Tech's best hitter. I think he would have played a ton for us last year. But we're not going to guarantee anything to anybody. So if somebody comes in and says, they want to start on the mound, I have the word compete above my desk. I'm all for that, but we're not going to guarantee anything to anybody, unless it's an extreme set of circumstances."