Tony Vitello Leaves Tennessee To Be San Francisco Giants Manager – 11.7 24/7

Tony Vitello Leaves Tennessee To Be San Francisco Giants Manager – 11.7 24/7

11.7 247 and today we have the founder of 11.7 Ben Upton the number one supporter of the tyiconderoga number two in pencil uh pencil and Jack Del Longshaw and the college baseball fortune teller myself Noah Benick today we are reacting to the San Francisco Giants they’ve officially hired Tony Vitello to be their new major league manager guys this first time that it’s ever happened in baseball history where a guy with previous no MLB experience whatsoever is going from the college dugout as a head coach literally being the general manager, the recruiter, everything, the general president of best baseball operations, however you want to phrase it, with no MLB experience, not even a player in the MLB. He’s jumping in and he’s a major league manager with more and more eyes on college baseball today. There’s going to be some growing pains that come with that and we have to start with this because it seems like the beginning of might what might be a trend if it actually succeeds and Tony Vetello becomes a successful MLB manager. Tennessee loses the face, their young face of a program that he built from the ground up into a national power, but also we college baseball fans also, you know, covering the game are losing one of the best young and entertaining star coaches in college baseball. Three college World Series appearances, four SEC titles, a national championship, all coming in within the last five years for Tennessee. Jack, you and Coach Vital had such a unique and close relationship. They brought you out to their campus to interview him a couple years ago when you first caught wind of Andrew Bagger’s uh Andrew Baggerly’s report connecting Buster Posey and the Giants to Tony V a couple of weeks ago. What were you thinking then compared to what are you thinking now as Vitell is packing his bags and heading west? Um I I think Ron Burgundy did it best when he said he was in a glass case of emotions. Um, I I think it’s it’s it’s uh the duality of this is very cool. I think we can all be a bit saddened that we’re losing one of the very best in the game, a guy that was kind of the pioneer, a trailblazer, if you will, to the passion, um, the pageantry that we see in college baseball today. I don’t think we talk about the story of the game the way that we do eight years ago before we took this job. So, um, you know, on the flip side, I think it’s really exciting. I I think that the major league game that not to say that once looked down upon their nose on the college game, but it did feel very separate. Now all of a sudden um a guy that’s marketed the sport of baseball better than anybody in the last decade is going to get a shot to do so at the big league level. And he’s big league as hell, man. It’s not just the beard to flow combo. It’s the way that he operates uh with his dudes in the locker room. And at the end of the day, Ben, you get it, man. That’s all that matters. Yeah, Ben, you’re working your day job today. put some thoughts on the paper and we have a blog out on 11.7 from you. Uh can you sum up some of your thoughts here at the the opening? Can you you just put a a couple of sentences together and what your overall feeling is? So that’s it, bro. How many welcome to the show? That’s all you get. How many paragraphs did you write reality? Um it was a very entertaining blog. Check it out. I’ve got some creative juices flowing today when the news broke. Um, it was I wrote a I wrote a blog in my lunch break. Like, I’m sorry. This fired me back up for college baseball season. Uh, you know, I paid attention to summer ball and like, you know, with my job at Synergy, like I have to pay attention to fall ball, but it it’s not the same excitement you get when uh probably the one of I’ll give them top five easily, but some people would argue number one most recognizable coaches to the general public is taking a job at the major league level. You hit on it. This doesn’t happen ever and like it probably never should happen, but in this circumstance, it made a lot of sense for the Giants to go after a figurehead that would instantly have respect in the clubhouse and a guy that can can communicate and, you know, push a new philosophy of Major League Baseball. Uh, and it’s all spearheaded by Buster Posey, an incredible, easily top 10 college baseball player of all time. So, like all the puzzle pieces fit and yeah, like I wrote a blog about it and mostly because I wanted to show my appreciation for Coach Vitello and what he’s done for the game of college baseball. Put a funny twist on it. Made fun of volunteer fans a little bit just cuz they, you know, they they’re social media creatures and there’s nobody else like them and they’re fun to mess with and poke at. Um, but also at the same time, you know, lay out what he did for Tennessee baseball, the SEC, and and college baseball in general. So, yeah, I mean to you mentioned, you know, volunteer fans hitting Twitter and social media in general, which is nothing else. It it’s it was just a they were teaching a clinic and fundamentals of just doing everything you possibly can try to do something to keep your coach. Unfortunately, I was with them. I I felt they were getting gas lit. Um I I even tweeted it like a day or two ago like everybody saying the longer that this thing takes, you know, the better it might be for Tennessee. And I’m just like no, that just means that there might be even more interest from the MLB. he could be interviewing with as many as eight teams here. And uh you know that that was kind of my feeling on that. At at first though when I caught wind of that I was like there’s I’m not going to make content out of this because there’s just no chance that this would happen. That was my honest feeling. I was like this is really has only happened once and that was Dick Hower and he had previously coached with the Yankees. So, um, so normally I’ll give everybody a, um, sorry to cut you off, Noah, but I will forget this. I’ll forgive if I don’t say it now, but like normally in college baseball, you can even spread it ac across like college sports in general. Um, when like offseason workouts are going on and you hear rumors about a head coach potentially taking a new coaching job, it’s for one of two reasons. one they’re looking for a bigger contract slashextension or two like it is got a lot of gas in the flame like it it so it was one of those two things right like Tony Vital was either using it as negotiation tactic like hey I want more money and want an extension I’ll just say I’ll have my agent call and say that the Giants are interested and it’s like okay that’s a possibility um but more than likely when the when the news broke um on Saturday that they interested and made him an offer. It was like, “Oh, this is serious. He’s going to take this journey.” Like nothing is going to like they wouldn’t offer him the job if they didn’t know he was like 95 to 100% sure. something to to your point too, Ben, I think that when you look at some of the things that he’s done in the past, like sitting on that MLB desk for different draft leagues and um like he has made his interest outside of baseball like prevalent to the media and um seeing V’s Twitter who I love dearly, you remember that social media is such a fake place filled with such incredibly human beings that um man it does put into perspective ive the kind of rise and fall. I think the best tweet I saw was this was a program that I used to be able to take canned soup and go watch them play for free and now like I’m sleeping in a tent and skipping work on a Tuesday to go watch. That’s the draw you’re getting now in San Francisco. That’s the guy that you’re getting. Um and the incredible amount of goodwill and outpour of love um from that community like that’s what you’re signing up for. So to your point, right, like I think that when the Giants say, “Hey, we’re interested.” And a guy like Buster Posey goes comes to you, right, with that aura. I think arguably a top three catcher in the history of the sport, right? All of a sudden, like these are two like competitive, hungry mother effers having a conversation, right? And and you take a guy like Tony V who is right like this is his life. He will make this his world. I saw someone talk about his the biggest challenge will be can he bring that juice for 162. Dude, he does it for 365. He never turns it off. Yeah. Right. So, I think that’s why it translates really well. Uh and I think it was just about a new opportunity that that is setting a new precedent. And and I’m with you like I I just think about those two guys sitting around at a table talking about Major League Baseball between Posie and Vital. You’re like, damn, that that’s just cool as Vital is married to the game. Like no partner, no kids, like he’s all in. And uh I think one hilarious aspect of this whole thing happening this weekend was uh Greg Olsen and Youth Inc. like I think he does a great thing and trying to interview uh other like big names in sports that are also uh relevant figures in youth athletes and lives and all that. They’re talking about the uh youth and amateur baseball scene. So I was like, “This is like my sweet spot. I want to listen to Tony D.” And so like in uh not not on purpose, just out of pure conversation, Vitello basically said, “Yeah, I I was invited out to go watch Drew Gilbert play with the with the Giants and I talked to a GM and you know that was Buster and this was everything that was happening within these last two weeks.” and his quote was, “I think guys are suffering the consequences all the way up to the big leagues where guys are super skilled, but there’s less development, less coaching, less accountability, and therefore less understanding of how to actually play to win the game. And you look at Valetella’s tenure and that’s all he’s done at Tennessee where that was his first head coaching job, period. And this guy’s just put nose to dirt and grinded. He’s 257 and 81 his last five seasons at Tennessee.” And honestly, their best, there was a tweet today that Tennessee fans want to name their new baseball facility after Tony Vital. And we’ll get we’ll get to this at the end of the show when we wrap it all up, but they might want to wait 10 to 15 years on that and make sure that he’s not back in the SEC and not do that, Tennessee. And and do not do that. Um, but Noah, here you’re you’re a young. You’re you’re under 25 years old, correct? Yeah. All right. I’m gonna give you some really good life advice that will tie immediately back to Tony Vital. One of the top rules you have to follow in your career is like you absolutely have to. Am I good? No, I think I didn’t lag. So, am I good? So, so I lagged. I didn’t catch all of him. It’s okay. We ride it. it. We’re going to keep it going. Um the the best life advice, you absolutely have to love who you work for. All right? Like bottom line, if you don’t love who you work for, it can get deeper than this, but I’ll keep it surface level. If you don’t love who you work for, you will never actually get fulfillment and you’ll never actually get enjoyment out of your job. Um, and I think there was some problems with allegedly inside like Tony Vitello’s demeanor and and the athletic department like he was getting a lot but like not what he felt like he was deserved and he probably fought battles every day behind the scenes we didn’t know about. But when Buster Posey comes up to you and says, “You are my guy. 100% this job is yours and like I will let you coach and develop and do whatever you want.” That was probably very enticing. Another life advice to build off of that is like you absolutely love you have to love where you live, right? If John decide like whether it’s close to family or whether it’s on the beach or whether it’s in the middle of nowhere, you have to love where you live because if not, you wake up every day in a place that and I’ve been there. You wake up in a place where like you don’t want to be and it just makes your whole day bad. Over like once baseball got popular and once Tony Vitello got popular, Knoxville’s not a big city. All right? Like he can’t go to the steakhouse downtown without being recognized. He can’t go to the grocery store. you can’t do these things and there’s a lot of distractions at that point, right? Like people recognize you. You can’t slip up because camera phone like every phone has a camera. You’re always being recorded. People are wanting pictures. You go to a big city like San Francisco where like sure there’s tons of Giants fans, but 70% of the city doesn’t care about baseball. Like you’re you’re in a good world. And I think that is kind of what Tony Vitella wanted and needed. to your point, uh, the first thing that you mentioned, Danny White did not hire Vital. He comes in in 2021 to Tennessee, I believe, from UCF. Um and another thing that you hit on possibly uh talking about the revenue share this whole new era of college college sports the name of our show is 11.7 or the name of our brand is 11.7 and the original you know cause of 11.7 scholarships in baseball was title 9 and I believe uh what the rumor was was that you know women’s basketball was getting more rev share money. It has to say that it’s it was a rumor. He cleared it up today. Yeah, but it it was the rumor. So, it has to. That’s just the no-brainer. It does because it’s one of your larger rostered women’s sports out there. Basketball, softball, off the top of my head, are both of them that I can come up with that for sure are uh, you know, worthy of some money and revenue sharing. Um, but Danny White in the press conference today came with some numbers to be transparent and back up uh, you know, their stance against some of the rumors. You know, the baseball budget when Tony Vital comes in at Tennessee was just $3.5 million. They say that they they’ve upped that to 14 million annually a year. Um, and yeah, I mean that’s including revenue sharing, that’s including third-party NIL, which still is relevant today. It’s not completely out of the game yet. So, uh, Jack, your thoughts on, uh, just what possible relationship there could have been. And I don’t know, anything on I don’t I just don’t like I I I want to use my word twice. I don’t care. Like I don’t give a damn how it happened. Like I think it this has probably been building to this moment for probably a while, right? Like and I think it was just time for a new journey. It was time for a new challenge. It was it was a new obstacle. Like I I think the opportunity to do this is rare. Like I I think social media has a tendency of trying to find dirt when maybe it doesn’t even exist, right? Like I I get where everyone was going with it. Um, but I also like, no, this has never happened before, right? So, like it was maybe it was a perfect storm, but some there’s always got to be a scapegoat. I don’t think there was. I just think that this is a really badass opportunity. Um, and the only thing I’m now hyperfixated on uh because Ben and I’s favorite football team stink. Uh, NBA can kick rocks. I’m trying to trick myself into being a hockey guy this year. is that I’m now only five months away from watching Drew Gilbert and Tony V share a dugout together again. Like, that is going to be so damn silly. And I’m so stoked for a city that probably hasn’t felt a lot of love towards baseball since the 10, 12, and 14 seasons. To get those lunatics together again is going to be mustwatch television every night. 10,000%. Another thing that I didn’t mention here that Danny White said was they’re funding 34 full roster scholarships players. 34 full rostered scholarship players. Um Ben playing in the 11.7 era. I mean that’s obviously something that you have to love if you’re a fan hearing an athletic director saying that you know our baseball team’s fully funded uh on that aspect. Yeah. Yeah, I mean they’re definitely in the minority there. I would say off the top of my head maybe 10% of division one baseball teams are at 34, but um you know that’s what every team is chasing, right? Is like having the funding to have 34 like everybody in your roster full scholarship because it is a great feeling graduating from college without student loans. Um it it it’s freeing, right? like you’re in the real world, get a job, and whether baseball works out for you or not, like you get to start fresh. Uh I know our friend Jack, he uh he might still have student loans, man. He went to like seven years of college. Yeah. Yeah. No big deal. Super super senior granddad. I was going to say it must feel you’re like, “Yeah, it feels really nice to not have student loans.” I was sitting there going, “Well, who the hell knows what that feels like?” Let’s make something abundantly clear. This whole like, oh man, these guys weren’t getting paid. There was probably a dude that was going to log. There is a guy that plays Tennessee baseball this year that will log less than 10 innings on the field that makes more than all three of us and our networks. Probably double. So, I think they’re going to be okay financially. Like, I I think Balls fans, it’s why we love you. It’s why you’re different. I cannot I’m so stoked that Major League Baseball Twitter got to experience a glimpse behind the curtain of how truly nutty you all are and I hope that you chase him the next however long. Um but yeah, dude, they they were just fine financially, right? I’m all I am certain of it. They’re all good. I do want to say Noah, I want to piggyback off what you said. Go ahead. It was good to see the sport celebrate this more than tear it down. There was a little tearing it down. Yeah. But the sport fans are gonna feel awful and they they should they should, you know. Yeah. But like you can’t be mad at the guy. He gave you everything he’s got and and won a national championship. It’s like I think most I would I would say over half of Tennessee baseball fans they’re not happy to see him leave but like there is no hard feelings at all. Yeah. I think you’re you hit the nail on the head and I’ll I’ll pass the baton in this conversation. And you could see it happen. Right. Literally they took two hours to be like, “All right, cool.” Like my girlfriend didn’t break up with me. It was just she she she got a great gig. It was a high school sweetheart. She’s going to college. I’m staying home and working at a steel mill. She’s got a great she got a great gig. Like what are we gonna do? And then for two hours we were all sad. I gotta stop you. I gotta stop because in my head I’m thinking like oh I’m a sweet little volunteer. I’m a nice guy. Volunteer for stuff and your girlfriend leaves you for a giant. Just a giant. You can’t compete with that. You can’t. You can’t. I was about I was Yeah. I love I was gonna make it way too real but I didn’t. I had to stop myself. I was thinking of that song, the Lanka song. But I think I think that um by the way, everyone covered this eight hours ago. We’re the dumb asses that thought we’d film at 11:58 at night. Um I do think it was cool. Like I think the fiveday window, which showed how difficult a decision it was for him, allowed some of the negativity to like fester, right? for a twohour window, everyone was pissed and sad and then it switched and it was really cool to see former players come back and be like, “Yo, shout out to TV.” Like, “This is badass. Come and hang out with the in the pro ranks. Let’s ride.” Uh, you think Jordan Beck might flick them off in in an NL West action matchup this year? Please, for the love of God, it would be awesome. And then it switched and then all of a sudden it was, “Hey, two fours up.” Like these guys are going nowhere. If Josh Elander when Josh Elander should be the next coach coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, he might be even swaggier than TV. He’s got the shirt. He wears arm sleeves to throw BP. Like this is the perfect guy. And there’s a reason that he’s turned down in my opinion. And maybe he didn’t, but he was up for other SEC jobs. Josh Elander to see the support that all of his former players and guys that he’s recruited rally behind all of a sudden like the energy completely shifted and that was cool to see. Yeah, Jack going right off my notes that I took from that presser. Uh Frank Anderson is the interim which caught many people by surprise I think because there was an entire online rallying cry for Josh Elander to be the new head coach and there’s still a chance that that can happen. Danny White wants him to focus on his candidacy to be the head coach. Focus on your interview and also focus on keeping our recruiting classes together because this really matters. Uh while uh you know they they may seem vulnerable to the outside. So, um I I do think that it’s interesting though that it’s not necessarily Josh Elanders the 1,00% favorite because they’ve hired a national search firm, Parker search firm, uh to do an a national head coaching search. Um Ben, your thoughts on, you know, Frank Anderson being in the inter room? He does have some college head coaching experience at Oklahoma State prior to this, so you can see the thought process being there. Uh, do you agree with it? Yeah, I I mean I do. Look, you’re not going to find a better fan of Josh Elander than me. I think everything he does is professional. It’s under the radar and like he he drives results and and and is able to recruit an incredible recruiting class every year. Frank Anderson makes more sense, right? Like he’s already been in this position. It takes the target off of Elander’s back 100%. Like you think about like the Michael Early getting hired at&m target immediately on his back. He’s got doubters. He’s got this and that. Frank Anderson can handle it. He’s been around the game forever. He’s a baseball lifer. Um he is somebody that is not going to use this title as a like an upper echelon over Elander. Um and I think a lot of these moves were calculated. I think when Tony found out that he was leaving, he was like, “Hey, I’m leaving in October.” Frank, you’re going to take over for me. I’m going to recommend you to take over, but like this is Josh’s job when he’s ready, which might be in January. It might be in in July of next year. We don’t know. Yeah. But I I do think Elander’s Coach Elander is the is the guy for the job. And I think that staff stays intact. And I think the players don’t leave. That’s my I mean that would be the perfect storm for me to to your last statement there that the players don’t leave. The portal is open for the next 30 days beginning at midnight right now. I’ve been those kids to Mercer for like the last, you know, 12 hours. That’s why we’re that’s why we’re recording at midnight. Yeah. Um a good orange. Danny White Danny White had also said Frank Anderson may be the interim for four days or he could be the interim for the entire season. So, Jack, uh, if you were in that locker room, because I know you know quite a few of the players, uh, in the clubhouse of Tennessee, just when, uh, your athletic director comes to you and he said that he wants the players to nominate a player-ledd leadership group that will have a voice in the coaching process. Um, you know, kind what kind of thought process could these guys be having right now? I don’t know. I don’t I also I don’t know if I believe that like he’s going to do what he wants to do, right? I think the outcry from former players and current players is extremely helpful, right? Like a lack of commentary would probably be troublesome, but I they’re going to make a decision based off of what they want to do. I actually think what is a cool insight to the whole situation is that they did roll out this interim plan the way that they did because the one thing I actually would disagree with you slightly on Ben is I actually think this is a very reactionary decision, right? Like if if Tony came to them a month ago when these rumors started and then two weeks ago when it became hot and then even Saturday when it became real, it would have been, hey, we were ready for this. We knew that this was coming down the pipeline. Joshander is the next head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, right? Um I think that this reactionary phase is actually a cool sign that this entire time a lot of people say it, but they actually maybe lived it is that Vitella was very honest with with coaches and players in real time of this is what I’m going through. This is what I’m thinking. Here’s where we are. I do think you bring up a really cool point, too. What’s probably most important about that interim tag is that a lot of times, right, it’s it’s it’s like the president of the United States, right, that first term, that last year, all you’re worried about is getting reelected. Frank Henderson don’t give a damn, right? Like he is the internet coach and he don’t care. He he’s he’s a career pitching coach because that’s what he loves to do. He you know, he he gets his rocks off to freaking calling pitches and to be able the pitcher development side like that is what he loves. It’s what makes him tick. So, I think it allows everyone to naturally sit back and go, let’s keep doing our own thing. Maybe Frank Anderson has to play a little bit more chess, not checkers. Okay, cool. That that allows a guy like Kirby Connell to take a step up and handle more of a pitching role. It allows a dude like Ross Kivid, who’s one of the more sought-after assistants in the country, to continue to shine. And then all of that alleviates the pressure for Josh Leonard, just keep doing his own thing. Um, so yes, I’m a big fan of the reactive state of of how they’re kind of living. It it screams authenticity to me. And um, yeah, I but I don’t know about the player thing. Like it Danny White’s gonna do whatever Danny White wants to do, right? That’s all I They’re paying him They’re paying him a lot of money. He got to make that decision. So, I would like to ask this. Who the hell is Parker? Because Parker, be very careful about doxing your name for this Parker coaching firm thing. Be very careful. We know these fans well. So, take that information with what you will. Oh, man. Uh, yeah. What is this Parker coaching search thing? The hell is that? Uh so basically bringing on a national search helps the athletic directors, you know, set up interviews and uh narrow candidates before they even get to the athletic director’s desk. Sounds like a gigantic waste of money. That’s a waste of money, dude. I could tell you who would be a good like I could tell you right now five names that like would be good fits. Well, Ben, let’s put our pitch deck together. Parker, I’m really sorry. I’m I am sorry, Parker. I’m really sorry, but Ben and I are coming for your bag. Danny, we’ll do it for a tenth of the cost. We’ll do it for $11.70. Ben, hit me with the top five names, not Tennessee Volunteers. Anyway, just subscribe to our Patreon and we’ll do it for you. Come join our pick a month and you’re good. Yeah, give me a That’s the biggest dude. To me, it sounds like pisses me off. To me, it sounds like a filter, like a they’re expecting 50 names or so to come through and say, “Hey, no, we need to take a step back. I’m fired up right now.” Pull up this Parker search firm. I I got to see if they even have a website. Okay. Some dude named Parker lives in I don’t know. No, Parker. Spooky, Oklahoma. What if we get like a cease and desist from I I also do enjoy this because you know damn well 10,000 Tennessee fans have already clicked on this homepage and given some clips or clicks. So yeah, it’s just like it’s just like our buddy I got one of my best pals is he’s a he he employs people. I don’t even know my brain is staffing agencies. He is he works in staffing. Parker is just a rich staffer. That’s it. Navigating the path to effective leadership. Our practice areas. It better be in a bullpen or a dugout. Damn it. Sports. All right. Hit it. Give me sports. Navigating the high stakes world in this world. Yeah, we’re in the wrong one, brother. Delivering optimal results. Northern Iowa is Hey, shout out to the purple dude. Northern I would devastate. Wait, read this. I’m going to read this paragraph. The search for a sport the search for a sports executive or coach is high profile and high stakes. Like no, it’s not. It’s easy. I just agree. This is very high stakes, dumbass. This is this is the highest this is the most high stake positional search that Parker’s ever endeavored. Tennessee fans livelihoods and moods in the spring and summer relies on this hire. Guys, it’s college sports. The teams with the most money and the best facilities are going to get the best players. I could coach them to 25 wins and I’ve never coached. Yeah, guess what? You would be fired. That’s just 25 wins at in Knoxville this year. Fired. That’s South Carolina last year in the year. 25 SEC wins. Sorry. 25 and five on the year. Oh, well then then then you’d have a statue made and you can go eat wherever you want. Oh, here we go. Proven success in sports arena and it’s a Tennessee football field. Oh, so did they go get Hypel for him? Maybe. Hey, actually, it probably was. Why? Why would you even So Danny White comes from UCF and Josh Hypel was at UCF. Why do we even need a national certificate? But at the end of the day, the AD is still the scapegoat. Like, you’re going to be the one that gets yelled at anyways. I Here’s the deal, Parker. Here’s our pitch. Parker, just give us a call. I don’t know if we need a law degree or something, but we’ll do a damn good job. Ben is actually mad. This is stupid, dude. Like, so it’s it’s college baseball, man. Like, it’s Dan Parker. Let’s do Dan Parker’s work for him. First off, just put Josh Elander’s name on the dotted line and call it a day. Um, but this wouldn’t be 11.7 if we didn’t have a little bit of fun. I have some off the offthe cuff names that I think could be Josh or could be Tony Vital Juniors when you Is this like fun or are we like actually making predictions? This is in shape or form would Tennessee fans actually want I want De I want Dimmitri to come crashing in with the stone cold music and tell us all to shut up. This is no fun on this podcast. I want Ben to be Parker. I want Ben to give very serious answers. Ben, I want your top five real answers. And now I don’t want serious answers. I Okay, it’ll be the same names. I’ll throw a name out there right now that like nobody’s mentioning. Danny Hall just retired from Georgia Tech. Like go get an older guy who’s done it before. Like been around the game for 40 years. Um like let him be the the is it pre predecessor pro? I don’t know the right word. I want Elander to take over for Danny Hall after two years. There you go. Go ahead. Uh, my guy, you know, you look online right now and there’s a lot of Vanderbilt fans just happy golucky like kind of dancing on Tennessee fans because the last regular season home game for Tennessee in the Tony Vitella era was a uh Vanderbilt win in a series win where uh Ethan Mlane just does the whole Vanderbilt creates a fight on the field. How about you go to the head coach that ended Vanderbilt’s season last year, Alex Soggard of Wright State. His teams play fiery, passionate, pa passionate, uh hit bombs, pitch well, six straight Horizon League tournaments in six full coaching seasons as a head coach. He’s uh 38 years old, uh four NCA tournament appearances, one regional runner up where he was a four seed. Uh, Alex Soggard of Wright State because if you’re not a Raider if you’re not a Raider gang, you could probably I was I’m actually stage should be their bullpen catcher. So, I love that pick. Uh, I didn’t know where the hell you were going with this Vanderbilt crap. I was like, let me make something very abundantly clear. No, I’ve got a Tennessee hat on, which obviously makes me a far better hire than Tim Gorbin to go to Knoxville, which is where I thought you were trending for some. Uh, I’m with Soard. I think that’s a sexy pick and I’m in. Check approved. That’s a sexy pick. He could absolutely do the job, but the Tennessee ego will never make that higher. No, I don’t think. Never. But like, would he be a great fit? And like, would it be fun? Like, yes, a thousand%. Is he qualified? Yes, I think so. Is Tennessee going to go hire right state’s head baseball coach? Like, no. Probably not. They want a guy that they can poach from an like a a high major auto bid at large team without even playing a single game. They want to poach a top 25 team’s head coach, but you’re just not going to grab that at this time of the year where they’ve already assembled a team that they want and uh you know believe in that they recruited. Uh you’re not going to find that. you’re I think you got to go to like a top med major head coach if you’re actually doing this which they’re not no offense to Alex Soggard or anybody else that we may name name on the show. I seriously think that they’re looking for like a Jim Schleneagel to poacher or whatever. That’s the the realm that I think Tennessee fans are that would be we I will say that was one thing that we have not talked about yet. Um, like there were a lot of reports and and Ben, you’ve been doing this a long time like that this was like no, we’ve never seen anything like this before, right? And it was I mean it’s cool, right? Like it’s the duality of how I’m supposed to feel. It’s a roller coaster of emotions. Except we did forget that we did kind of do this two days after the World Series two years ago where it was like sllos called the entire state of Texas to kick rocks and everyone thing was shattering and we didn’t even get to celebrate the natty because it was mayhem. So this is backtoback years with like earthquake coaching changes. Hey, the last time the state of Tennessee had a school not have a head coach in fall ball. I’ll bring you back to the 2013 UT Martin Skyhawks where the coach that recruited me, the head coach that recruited me to UT Martin my freshman year got fired the week before we reported and we did not have a head coach throughout the whole fall. Yeah, we interviewed like five different guys. All of them turned it down and we didn’t and then we ended up having to use the interim coach to be the head coach for the whole season. That’s awesome. So, we only had two we had two coaches and a strength coach, our strength coach, the football strength coach coach first base for us because we couldn’t we didn’t hire another coach. Thank you, Ben. Thank you for returning us to our roots and and shout out to Skyhawk Nation because that’s what we do here. Four years at Charleston Southern, I had three head coaches, seven strength coordinators, and close to nine assistants. And only one of them is still in baseball. This thing happens all the time. The balls are going to be just fine. You spoiled Tennessee fans just think it’s going to be easy. That’s what I want to happen. But I we didn’t have a head coach or a coach quit two weeks before opening day. Opening day. This was in January. Now granted, he did coach with the Gamecooxs. Thus, quite the promotion. Couldn’t be that bad. But we went the whole year with three coaches. I I want to see the VSS have players coach each base this year. Now we’re that’s college baseball. Any other candidates from you guys that you have ideas of maybe? Yeah, I mean, I’ll throw out search firm. I’ll throw I have a list of names, too, if you want, but like they’re not getting the job in January. Like, no way. Um, but like I made this list thinking of guys who would be like, uh, would I want to coach my team or would I want to go coach a top 10 roster in the sport right now that’s ready to win this year? There’d be 300 of them. I I don’t know if it’s 300. I think there’s a a good list. All right, here’s my list. Dan Fitzgerald of Kansas. like he’s if he got the job, he would do great things. Like he’s already done great things for Kansas baseball. Like he’s on the same path of like what Tony Vitello did year after year improving the the not only the stadiums but the fan base and the player talent and like all of that. Like I think he’s one of the better coaches out there. Uh you got W out in Oregon who like is in my opinion top 10 coach in the nation hands down. somebody that has West Coast ties but like also just like nationwide ties like he would be fine. Tennessee fans would love him. Um Skyler Meade Troy like boy would that be fun. Like he would not surprise me. Um Heathner Dallas Baptist nobrainer. Like if he wants it let him have it but he didn’t take the&m judge. So, it’s like, do you want a a better idea or way we could do this? Snake draft. Snake draft. Snake draft. You want a snake draft? Like, you know, I’m always down for a snake. Coaches that are good fits at Tennessee. And then we’ll have Dimmitri make a graphic and we’ll post it. Josh Elander. He he he’s got number one. He he just he beat us to the punch. We were all trying to figure out a way to like and then the graphic is going to make y’all look like such Hey, I I call number two pick and I’m putting Tony Vital. Oh, this is a pandering son of a gun. What are we talking about here? So disgusting. I don’t even want to snake draft anymore. All right, then I put Frank Anderson. I’ll put Show Otani. If you get Tony Velo, I’ll take Otani. No, I didn’t take I I took Frank Anderson. Hell of a pitching coach. So, you guys make me take like just All right, fine. Just take No, no, take Ross. Give it. Take Ross. Give it. I’ll take Ross. Give it. I’ll take Ros. I’ll trade you. Yeah. There you go. Well, you got the snake, though. You got You got backtoback picks, you know. Um, no. I’m going to give you I’ll go my first pick. I W from Oregon would be my first pick and I would take Dan Fitzgerald, too. Like two guys that have incredible programs and have done a lot in the last 5 to 10 years. Um five years for Fitzgerald, but anyways, um last five years, let’s call it at their respective schools. And it like the Tennessee money is just way more than what Kansas or Oregon could offer them. Like it’s just tremendously higher than what those other schools would offer a baseball coach. Very fair. When I was con creating my list of Tennessee candidates, I was thinking of somebody that is passionate, wears his heart out on a slave like Tony Vitella did. He’ll immediately just attract Tennessee fans to like him. Also, you know, a guy that’s at a place that money’s going to speak and if Tennessee comes over the top, it’s like I can’t turn this down, man. Number three, successful college baseball coach, Cliff Godwin. Oh, that’s fun. That’s my top. You know, I’m always for the Cliff Godwin conspiracies. I’m still waiting on I’m still waiting on him to get the Mississippi State job from six months ago. With his old miss roots, I was like, there’s no way that can happen. But very similar recruiting grounds for Tennessee and East Carolina. So Godwin, Jack, I you know I’m gonna pander, but I do think they would be fun picks. I I do think Skyler M would agree. I He’s broken the strikeout record. His pitching staff has broken the single season strikeout record everywhere he’s gone and he continues to do so at Troy. Their schedule this year is a gauntlet because he’s tired of hearing the outside noise by missing the tournament the last two years. Hey Jack, what did I text Skyler me the other day with him? Welcome to the Beard, Coach Mercer. Week one. Buckle up, pal. Yeah, I said I said that sucks. You guys are going to start 0 and3 this year. Going to Mon, Georgia opening weekend. Are you kidding me? Yeah. Take some balls. And and I’ll say this too, and I’m not just saying this because I’m scared of what their fan bases will say to me, but it is ironic that a bunch of coaching extensions have come out before this went down, right? Like I I think I saw I don’t know if it was on three or someone said Kevin Schnall like y Kevin Schnall is a coastal guy. His entire staff is Coastal like born and built. Like Teal Nation, I don’t want you coming after me with me linking you like your guy to like Knoxville. I think he’s very happy with where he is, but he did just coach for a national championship. Like I’m sure Danny White’s going to pick up the phone and call. Um but yeah, I think that’s why like a guy like Skyler Meade who who’s jump spot to spot is on this trajectory. I’m sure they want a head coach. Um but yeah, I uh the Giants should have hired coach Schnel to be their manager. He feels like more of a major league manager now that I’m putting it together. Perfect in the MLB. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Can you imagine vote? Can you imagine Quigs in a Raphael de jersey? You’d feed families. Wow. You have a snake, Jack. You’re go. You’re up. Right. You took snow. Did you take snow? Oh, yeah. But he just signed an extension. I guess none of this is realistic because I think it should be Joshander. Extensions mean nothing in college sports. Can I take Mike Rooney? Can Can we get Mike Rooney out of it? Hey Jack, I got a great pick for you. Just take Dave Van Horn and like really throw this for a loop. There we go. That is big brain for sure. And then Vital immediately leaves the Giants job that would be straight out of a WWE script. That would just be a WWE script. Isn’t that just wife swap? And then the Giants And then the Giants are forced to hire Kevin Schnull. There we go. We fixed it for everybody. Dave Van Horn, Tennessee. Vital Arkansas Schnull Giants. Boom. Boom. Roasted. Yeah. What would piss the most people off? I’ll tell you who’d piss the most people off. It might be my draft pick. And if I’m up, I want it. Please. Bang. Yeah. Roland Fanning. He knows the area. He’s two hours down the road. Yeah. But at Tennessee, you don’t even need to know the area. You got Yeah. Well, this guy, this guy at Austin P in Clarksville, Tennessee, had four SEC grad uh portal transfers playing in the infield for him last year. Yep. With a center fielder who stayed on campus even in the world of NIL and was the first team all-American and was drafted by the Mets. He went and got a guy from Houston that played left field that was also a first team all-American. If you wanted to give that guy a Tennessee NIL recruiting budget, let me tell you, you make a joke about Showi. I think Roland Failing could go and recruit show to go play for the He still got college eligibility. Man, I guarantee you if if Roland Fanning’s name gets thrown into this Tennessee job, which I really think there’s a chance it’ll happen. It already has. I think all uh 13 other How many SEC teams are there now? 16. 15 others. Yeah. 16. I think all 15 other SEC teams pay Austin P to keep him there and not get him to knock. Like we cannot handle this. We just got rid of Tony Vital. Like let’s keep Roland Fanning who’s like a white monster energy to a coffee. Like that is a huge jump between those two. the the Mountain Dew Tennessee marketing budget. Yeah. Like like he makes Vital look like he’s having a sugar rush from Sprite and then he’s whipping out like Mountain Dew Baja Blast. They’re different levels, man. Here’s the deal. I know I’ve talked about my two picks a lot on this show, but damn it would they be fun. Incredible. Yes. I think I think Can you imagine him walking into the SEC coaches like meeting or I’m sure they have like a conference, right? Imagine Mountain Dew bottle rockets after home runs. Oh my god. Tennessee fans already slug Mountain Dew. Like that’s a He would coach a game from the porch in left field. He can do it. They had CocaCola on the uh press stand in the in the press room that would just get replaced by Mountain Dew. Yeah, easy. Great pick, Jack. Both of those great. He’s got the best team right now with Josh Elander, Skyler Me, and Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He’s winning this thing right now. Um, so I’ve got to come back and do something about it. What will I do? Um, let’s go with trying to big brain and be creative, but I I have this list here of guys that have been sniped. Um, let’s Phil Jackson, they’re in the triangle. Trying to be creative. I’m really trying to force it, but I don’t think I can. Uh Jeff Mercer, Indiana’s head coach. He was in the regional last year with Tennessee. Put up a a a respectable fight. I think they won one game in that uh with Devin Taylor and the and the bunch. I think this is also another energetic, passionate coach that plays a similar brand of style of baseball that I think Tennessee fans would really like. And that is going to lose me this draft. But it’s not created. It’s not creative enough to to win this thing, but he was on not a bad pick at all. Um, so I get two picks and then my last I’m going Sogard. I I already explained Soard. Yeah, he was he was number one just for creative. Frank Anderson. Oh, I forgot about the garbage round. Should we do a fourth because of our garbage round? Yeah, I was just gonna go until we ran out of ideas. Yeah. Okay, I like that. Um, I’m between two. Like, I think one is more realistic than the other, but the other one’s way more fun. Do both. Yeah. You have two picks. Yeah. Okay. Um, so my my more fun one would be do it. Do it. I might know who he’s talking about. Dimmitri Curtis. Do you want to take a guess? Noah. Yeah. Is he a co-orker of Jack’s? Not Jack. Yeah. I do have a couple different jobs. Coworker. Does he call college baseball games and work at a similar media company? Oh. Oh, no. No. Who are you talking about? Chris Burke. Oh, that would be a fun one. That is fun. Is Chris Burke a co-orker of mine? That sounds like fun. He works for D1, right? I don’t know. And he works for ESPN and you’ve gotten some jobs. Shout out to D1, but I don’t know if he’s Well, yeah, I know he does. I If you’re not listening to the I think he literally just did a podcast. I think he did Sunday. Yeah, he does the Sunday convos with Rooney. They’re awesome. I They are fun. They are really fun. They are good. Chris Berick. That’s a good one. Okay. So, I didn’t I didn’t or Ben was thinking of here. Yeah. So, here’s here’s one that I No, you’re good. You’re good now. Okay. Sorry. Um Jack, you’re going to love this or hate this. Like, I think a good person for the job is Kirk Sarlos. I thought about that, too. Like the get your foot in the SEC. Like I know that Big 12 is a great baseball conference and like have really good teams, but the money I think is going to be like almost double what Kirklos is getting at TCU. So, and like he’s somebody that like great reputation, other coaches love him, players love him. It’s I know he loves TCU, but man, it’s going to be hard to say no if he gets offered the job. Yeah, that’s a great pick. I did think about that, but like he I think I feel like he’s knocking on the door of having maybe one of his best teams in in Fort Worth this year, you know? Um the so like the fun one that I another one that I was debating between Eric Bakage like Yeah. Is he would he could he? Yeah. Does he? He could for sure, but he’s also like I mean I picked Godwin, so you could say the same thing about M, but you know, Bakitch was always like kind of he started his coaching career at Clemson and was part of that iconic four. Um, so that would be hard to break, but you know, everybody’s got a price. That’s why we’re doing this. It’s fun exercise. I think it’s a good pick. I love them. These are going to be the same 10 names that are circulating everywhere, though. gave nothing. I don’t know. Maybe. Who do you think is gonna freaking choose? Yeah. Who’s partard Roland Fanning? We’ve got uh Yeah, this is this has been a fun. Did you see a guy like I could almost see like a Matt Degs getting an interview? That’d be fun. Like he he looks Tennessee. Like he looks like a Tennessee guy. Tennessee. Last time he coached a team that was Orange, they went to a super regional in uh at Sam Houston. Shout out to the Cats. Yeah, I’m with it. I I have a Well, it’s Noah’s turn, but I have a I have an office themed pick. What do you got, Ben? No, you go ahead. Go ahead. I have a I have one that like I’m going for the graphic. I’m going Chris Burke. I want that there. So, I like that. I like that play. Um, go ahead. If you’re not watching and you’re just listening at home, Ben just had the craziest looking epiphany face ever. So, I I gotta hear this. All right. Think about college World Series teams last year. Okay. Oh, Dan Skirka. Yeah. Yeah. It’d be a no-brainer. It’d be sick. While he’s hot, dude. Might as well. This is why he’s hot. Um, I have beat an SEC team on the way there twice. Yeah, they I have I have an office theme pick, but would you guys like a We’re an hour in at 12:30 from the clouds. Just got off of work. The all-American college baseball girl pick from Natalie Spatula. Yeah, bring her on. She’s She’s blushing. She really wants to make a pick. She goes, “Guys, I don’t I don’t want to interrupt, but I really want to make a pick.” Serious pick. I’ll take the mic, but don’t put me on camera. I think you’re missing the absolute, you know, reason Tennessee exists to this day, and that’s Dolly Parton. Is she still alive? Is she still with us? She’s alive. She She’s alive for this very reason to coach the balls to a championship. I want Cydney Chzny. Imagine the cheetah the cheetah uh jacket and like the daddy hat on. Oh, and and there’s Morgan Wallen available for this. I think you guys are missing. I think we actually missed the entire purpose of this exercise. We know who they’re going to hire. It’s going to be Josh Elander, but if they needed someone fun this year, Natalie, what would Dolly Parton’s walk up song be? Oh god. Maybe Jolene. And now nine to five. Nine to five. Guys, that’s your answer. Guys, I think we’re missing the point here. Frank Anderson’s going to call pitches. Joshander’s going to coach the hitters. We just need an icon to fill the shoes just for the spring. Hey, figurehead. Yeah. Wait, is Dolly still kicking? She’s still here. Yeah, she’s still here. I feel like she did a football halftime show not that long ago. Yes. Literally last year, I think, for the Cowboys if Yeah, Cowboys. Cuz she was dressed up like a Dallas uh cheerleader. Was that Laney Wilson though? Uh did she do one too? I I only have eyes for my girlfriend, but I feel like I’d notice the difference between Laney Wilson and Dolly Park. Yeah, me too. I would, too. I think that was a really fun exercise at the end of that show. I’m not quite sure if there’s going to be any other people doing a snake draft of Tennessee head coaching candidates in in October. Um, but yeah, that wraps up the 11.7 247 episode here talking about Tony Vitello. I’ve got a bunch of creative fun topics that we’re going to hit throughout the offseason here once I get out of uh college basketball preseason content mode. I appreciate you guys joining me and uh talking about the uh you know the firestorm that’s happened in Knoxville, Tennessee over the last two weeks. Any parting words from either of you fellas? Uh Jack, uh any any words of encouragement for Tennessee fans out there? Yeah. Uh don’t cry. It’s over. Smile that it happened. Rocky Top, you’ll always be. Couldn’t have said any better. All right, that wraps it up, I guess. Ben, thank you for the the very, very well thoughtout words. Uh, on socials, we’re at 11.7 as you all know. You can follow Jack at J D Longshaw or Ben Upton at BEN_upton5, myself, Noah B77 will be here on YouTube throughout the offseason providing con fun college baseball banter. Tennessee fans, rest now. 11.7 has the watch. We will see you in V Hola.

#Baseball #CollegeBaseball #NCAA #MLB
Today Ben Upton, Jack DeLongchamps, and Noah Bieniek are reacting to the San Francisco Giants hiring Tony Vitello to be their new Major League manager. More and more eyes are on the game of College Baseball but with that comes some growing pains. Tennessee is losing their young face of the program, who built the Volunteers up from the dirt into a National Power, but all of College Baseball is losing one of the best young and entertaining star coaches in the sport. Vitello recorded 3 College World Series appearances, 4 SEC Titles, and a National Championship all in a 5 year span.