Josh Elander. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
It’s been just under two weeks since Danny White tabbed Josh Elander to replace Tony Vitello as the 26th head coach in Tennessee baseball history.
Elander joined Sports Talk with John Wilkerson and Vince Ferrara on Wednesday morning to discuss this weekend’s Orange & White World Series, hiring Chuck Jeroloman as his associate head coach and much more. Here’s everything Elander said on Sports Talk.
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On what the first week and a half on the job have been like
“It’s been a lot. Very exciting, obviously, very thankful. But with the timing of everything, we’re still right in the middle of our fall scrimmage period, so it’s a very small period that we have throughout the course of the fall, but this will be the culmination this week, and we’ll play this Sunday at Smokies Park at five o’clock. So excited to see how the boys compete down the stretch here.”
On balancing the coaching search with his job as an assistant coach
“Well the first thing is I’ve always had great people around me in the building. That’s what I’m so excited about, is to keep the staff together and for the players and to keep this thing moving. But I think for everybody, it’s nice to have aspirations or I want to be able to maybe do this in the future. But for me, it’s always been about, hey, if I do the best job I can where my feet are right now, everything else will take care of itself. But again, just always talking to other mentors or reading books about leadership and performance, I think, just kind of adding tools to your toolkit. And being in a constant state of, hey, I need to learn this or that or more things. And again, that’s always been my approach going into this.”
On how the players have handled first the uncertainty and then the coaching transition
“I think that they’re like pros, right? Because, again, I know in recruiting, we’ve talked about it a bunch— I mean, V(itelo) was the captain the ship and family to all of us, right? So again, when something changes that’s so drastic, I think it’s normal for people to have fear or questions, but for our guys to be able to kind of put their nose down and continue to grind through the scrimmage period and just get better each day, and again, just make sure that didn’t affect their daily routines. So that gives me a lot of excitement going into the spring because it’s not going to be smooth sailing in the SEC. It’s always, you’re going to get punched somewhere along the way, but for our guys to be able to focus and continue to stay on the track with all the outside noise, I think it’ll be a good precursor for the season, because that’ll be that was a good little test for going into this spring.”
On what Frank Anderson was like as interim head coach, during the transition
“Yeah, he was great. I mean, it was cool, because, again, we got to kind of go through the practice plans and stuff. And Sean McCann threw up some old pictures of Frank the tank in the Oklahoma State uniform from a head coach back in the day, getting after umpires. There’s some good (ones). He us to do that back then as well. But he was amazing again, just kind of like a calming voice. And it was cool to see him in that role, just kind of talking to the team. But, again, any day we got Frank in the building is a win so, but he handled it like a pro, and I think he did a great job kind of bridging the gap there. Over that last couple of weeks or so.”
On hiring Florida’s Chuck Jeroloman as associate head coach
“Just super, super excited. Just to give everybody kind of a feel, Chuck had a huge impact on my personal career as a player. He was one of my coaches at TCU. He’s an incredible family man. I’m excited to welcome Tara and their four boys up to Knoxville. But we’d always kind of talked about, like, hey, what if we got to work together one day? And it was more just hey, just kind of off the cuff convos or whatnot. But then as this thing transpired, like it went from more just kind of casual conversation with hey, I don’t know if this will work. And then it was like, we got to do this. This is an amazing opportunity. So again, it’s just a guy I trust. I’ve worked with him in the cages as a player. He’s relentless on the road recruiting. So player development and recruiting, just relationships with players. Like, he checked every box that I was looking for, but also too, like, it really fits in as a guy that I believe is family. So with the other people in the building, I’m excited for them to get to meet him. I’m excited for the fans to see what a great job he’s going to do with our players, but he will be a difference maker from from day one here in Knoxville.”
On what assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Ross Kivett means to the program
“Just 100% earn for Ross, too. Because everyone’s seen his passion and how much he wants to win, right? But I think Ross, it’s a cool deal. He’s evolved over the years, right? He’s a girl dad now. We got the girl dad club going over at our field, the daddy daycare going on. But with Kiv, he’s just done a great job, man. I mean, obviously with the infield, he does great, his energy in recruiting, and he’s just a guy I can really count on, right? So he’s a guy with 100% comfort, basically pass the torch and say, ‘Hey, man, I need you to kind of run point on this recruiting stuff.’ And there’s a ton that goes into that behind the scenes, just simply with organization. A million phone calls every day, whether it be to prospects or families. There’s just a lot that goes into it. I think he’s going to do a phenomenal job. That was one of the things I was excited about, was, you know, to be able to elevate him to that deal, little bit more responsibility. I’m just so excited and thankful that he’s back because our players really trust him, and he does a great job with our infielders, and has a versatile skill set that is going to have a great impact on our program.”
On playing at Covenant Health Park this Sunday, if that will be the only Orange & White Fall World Series game
“So we’re going to actually do some, a couple in-house on Friday and Saturday. Now, with the construction and everything going on, access to that is going to be limited, just for safety reasons. So the plan will be to make sure our Twitter game, or X game, is going strong. We’ll keep everybody updated. But you know, the best chance to see the Vols all in one spot down the stretch here will be at Covenant Health Park on Sunday.”
On how he and Tony Vitello are similar, but also different
“That’s a heavy question right there. Really with V, I think similarities, like we both are obsessed with recruiting and love to win and love to compete. I think that’s kind of where we start. I think just the difference would maybe just be like temperament, and it’s not like — I’m just more of, again, I think I learned as a player, I had some incredible managers in the minor leagues about, you know, they would always talk about you have your energy bar each day, and you don’t waste energy on things that don’t matter, right? A lot of things can go into that, but I think just kind of attacking each day, let them be mutually exclusive, and then kind of going from there is something that I really roll with.
“But I thought we were a great, like, kind of yin and yang where, you know, again, just different styles, but it’s— my wife told me Garrett Crochet made a cool quote. It was, different sides of the coin, but similar, but different at the same time. So, you know, again, I think you’ll always see on this program — and again, incredibly thankful. He changed my life forever. I will always be incredibly outspoken on all that, but just excited to see how this thing kind of evolves over the course of this spring and beyond.”
On if Elander has moved into Vitello’s office yet
“Yeah, to be honest, his office, they got it kind of finally all cleared out and everything. But I’ve been a little hesitant to move over there at this point. More out of respect for V. We’ve had a lot of recruiting meetings in there and all that, but I think he’ll have a nice little office in (San Francisco), too. So I think it’s a win for both of us.”