Tennessee AD Danny White Shouldn’t Look Too Far in Search To Replace Tony Vitello

A Major Shift For the Vols

Vitello’s impact on Rocky Top is clear by looking at his 341-131 record, but the on-field success doesn’t come close to fully conveying the job he and his staff have done since his arrival ahead of the 2018 season. 

An adept recruiter, Vitello has built Tennessee into a vaunted destination for blue-chip prospects. The Vols have inked a top-15 recruiting class in each cycle since Vitello’s arrival and are coming off back-to-back No. 1 classes, according to Perfect Game. 

As Vitello yanked the program out of its competitive hibernation, the St. Louis native instilled a culture that came across as equal parts fiery and cerebral. While becoming one of the most popular coaches in Tennessee athletics history, Vitello and his teams weren’t concerned with rubbing the opposition and non-partisan fans the wrong way.

There was never any concern when it came to backing that attitude up, though. After a 29-27 campaign in his first year in charge, Vitello’s teams made a Regional in each of the last six full seasons — Tennessee was 15-2 when the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic — and averaged 49.5 wins per season.

Tennessee hadn’t cracked a Regional since 2005. It has now been to five Super Regionals in a row, three of which were hosted at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The dream 2024 season saw the Vols conquer Omaha and win the College World Series for the first time, stamping their place as one of the new stalwarts in the sport. 

Every summer is also a reminder of what Tennessee baseball has turned into. Under Vitello, Tennessee has seen 52 players selected in the MLB Draft, 10 of which went in the first round. The 2025 draft this July saw nine Vols selected, including four first-rounders — a program record.

Vitello’s annual salary of $3 million made him the second-highest-paid baseball coach in Division I. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported on Saturday that his buyout is also $3 million. Buster Posey has been anything but conventional in his role as Giants’ President of Baseball Operations, but taking a swing on Vitello is especially bold.

All of that to say: On face value, this could be a program-altering shift for Tennessee baseball.

Plenty of programs in the past have risen to prominence, just to careen back into mediocrity after the initial wave of success wore off. Nothing is permanent, and that rings especially true in the forever-altering college sports landscape.

Tennessee AD Danny White Shouldn’t Look Too Far for Vitello’s Replacement

With less than four months to go until the beginning of the 2026 season, looking within your program to fill a Vitello-sized void is unfeasible for anyone. Lucky for the Vols, there happens to be a top-notch in-house candidate that looks to be more than capable of sustaining the Tennessee oeuvre. 

Josh Elander has been right by Vitello’s side throughout his entire tenure. He joined the Tennessee staff in August of 2017 and has done nothing but help the Vols excel as their hitting coach and recruiting coordinator.

After five seasons on Rocky Top, he was promoted to associate head coach in 2022. Before UT, Elander played at TCU while Vitello was an assistant. The pair also spent a year together in Arkansas before making the move to Knoxville.

In short, Elander is as heralded as assistants come and is a clear and sensible choice to take the reins for his longtime dugout mate. That’s not the decision that Tennessee Athletic Director Danny White has made, for now, though.

Just a couple of hours after Vitello’s departure was confirmed, White announced on Wednesday that it’ll be longtime pitching coach Frank Anderson who takes over as interim, while Elander will be a candidate for the job as Tennessee “conducts a national search” for its next head coach.

Though Elander has been the one to take Vitello’s place in-game in the past, it’s the veteran Anderson that’ll be the Vols’ “shepherd,” as White put it, while they hunt elsewhere, gauging interest at a peculiar time, months after the typical coaching carousel window.

“A combination of factors, Frank’s obviously been a head coach, but probably more importantly, as quickly as I’d like to move, I’d like Josh to be able to focus on his candidacy,” White said in his Wednesday press conference.

“He’s kind of in the middle of all this, too. Up until this morning, the entire staff didn’t know the decision that Tony was going to make. He’s been focused on recruiting and coaching his players, we have an incoming class, there’s a lot going on, I didn’t want to throw this on him now while also maybe treating an interview as an afterthought.”

Once the report of Vitello’s departure was confirmed, former Tennessee players flocked to social media to show their support for Elander. It’s clear that he has respect in droves and looks like a top choice for many of those who have spent ample time around him in the program.

It’s no slight to Anderson, though. One of the preeminent pitching coaches in all of college baseball who’s also been in Knoxville for eight seasons, he can palliate the state of affairs that the program now finds itself in. As White eluded to, the former Oklahoma State head coach and longtime assistant at notable programs like Texas Tech and Texas is viewed as a more traditional choice, considering his wealth of experience.

But make no mistake, tapping Elander would be more than a quick fix for White. His name has popped up on hot boards in the past — most recently for the Mississippi State job back in the spring. When analyzing Elander’s impact, there are similarities that can be drawn to Vitello, someone who has separated himself near the top among his peers.

Tennessee lineups have become consistently potent on a yearly basis. The Vols have hit .300 or higher as a team in three of the last four seasons. There’s often pop up and down the lineup — they’ve finished top three in home runs in the SEC for the last five seasons. Since the beginning of the 2021 season, Tennessee is, amazingly, averaging 8.18 runs per game. That’s across 338 games.

A slew of those aforementioned draft picks took mighty strides at the plate after arriving to the program and spending time with Elander. This July saw Gavin Kilen and Andrew Fischer go in the first round of the MLB Draft. Christian Moore and Blake Burke did the same last summer. Both Moore and Burke were among those who showed support for Elander on Wednesday.

The Round Rock, Texas product has also established himself as a first-rate recruiter and could take a great deal of credit for Tennessee’s aforementioned signing classes.

Vitello has praised Elander’s recruiting prowess at length, and from a transitional standpoint, there would no better way for Tennessee to keep its standout 2026 and 2027 recruiting classes in-tact than to turn things over to its recruiting coordinator. Elander’s relationship-building chops would also bode well for dealing with the daily ups and downs that’ll come off the field throughout a season.

That same point can be vocalized when thinking about continuing the Tennessee culture and cushioning the blow of losing your head coach in the middle of fall ball.

Vitello was on the field for a scrimmage over the weekend and continued to run practice through Tuesday. He’s now set to head to the Bay, but the Vols still have to gear up for a season that’s now looming.

A Significant Void to Fill

While the transfer portal will open, only graduate transfers would be able to move elsewhere and immediately play this coming season. Keeping things as familiar as possible should be embraced by everyone involved.

This isn’t to say that Elander taking over for now would absolutely clear Tennessee of any sort of buffer in 2026 and beyond. Adjusting to life without Vitello, a dominating dugout presence, will be a bulwark for some. It would be foolish to assume otherwise, no matter how much continuity the rest of the staff would keep heading into the spring.

There will now be a microscope on the coming season, too, with droves of keyboard pundits ready to point the finger at Vitello’s absence anytime the Vols hit a bump in the road.

White did not put a timeframe on the upcoming coaching search and for good reason. Trying to lure a worthy candidate away from elsewhere on such short notice will be a tall task, despite the national interest that’s sure to follow.

The potential pool of candidates could prove White’s decision to conduct a search right, but he has a ready-made candidate in the wings, one who knows what it means and how it feels to succeed in Knoxville.

An unprecedented situation looks to have a lucid resolution, but it remains to be seen what direction Tennessee baseball will choose. Time will tell as the season approaches.