Another domino fell from the Tennessee baseball staff as pitching coach Frank Anderson is expected to follow Tony Vitello to San Francisco to take a position within the organization, sources confirmed to Volquest Wednesday evening.  

It was also announced last Friday that Tennessee strength coach Quentin Eberhardt was following Vitello to the Giants. Vitello is reportedly hiring Justin Meccage as pitching coach, who was with the Milwaukee Brewers Triple-A squad in 2025, so Anderson’s exact role is currently undetermined at the moment.

Tennessee has since hired Keegan Knoll to replace Eberhardt as the program’s strength coach. The Vols have an internal option in Josh Reynolds who could replace Anderson if Elander chose to stay in-house. Reynolds spent the 2025 season on Tennessee’s support staff as the Director of Pitching Performance. Previously, he was the pitching coach for Cincinnati. 

As it currently stands, Elander’s on the field staff includes associate head coach Chuck Jeroloman – who was hired away from Florida two weeks ago – and recruiting coordinator Ross Kivett. Anderson’s role will be massive shoes to fill as he handled the day-to-day side of the pitching staff for Vitello during his entire eight-year run on Rocky Top, producing some of the nation’s best talent.

The former pitching coach played a monumental role in helping the Vols win the 2024 College World Series – the first national championship in program history. Anderson was instrumental in helping the Vols reach Omaha three times over a four-year span and super regional play five-straight seasons.

“I’m going to enjoy this first,” Anderson laughed when Volquest asked if he’s ready to be back in Omaha again while celebrating moments after the final out of the national championship in June of 2024. “It’s such a good group of kids. Our pitching staff, that’s not how you draw it up. It’s just satisfying, man, to see how that thing worked. Guys had to come back and pitch again on short rest.”

The Vols finished the 2025 season ranked No. 14 in ERA (4.06) and WHIP (1.29) across college baseball.

Tennessee finished the 2024 national championship season with the sixth-best ERA (3.89) in the country, fifth-best WHIP (1.25) and third-most strikeouts (700). A season ago in 2023, the Tennessee staff placed second nationally in ERA (3.63), WHIP (1.16) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.03). Anderson was named the Rawlings Pitching Coach of the Year following the 2022 campaign, where Vols hurlers led the country in ERA (2.51), WHIP, strikeout-to-walk ratio (695/164), walks allowed per nine innings and hits allowed per nine innings.

Through eight seasons at Tennessee, the instructor has coached 29 players who have been selected in the MLB Draft, including a program-record six in 2023. Chase Dollander previously headlined the draft picks for Anderson, as he was selected eighth overall by the Rockies in 2023 while Garrett Crochet was taken 11th overall by the White Sox in 2020. Liam Doyle was taken fifth overall by the Cardinals this past summer.   

“I was headed to Arizona State and kind of made a U-turn. He talked me into coming over and taking a look at it,” Anderson said of Tony Vitello’s recruiting pitch to him after he was hired in 2017. “I wanted to win a national championship again and I wanted to do it at a different school. I had never coached in the SEC. That was another thing, too. I wanted to see if my little schtick would work in the SEC.”

Prior to arriving at Tennessee, Anderson spent five seasons as an assistant coach at Houston. He was formerly the head coach at Oklahoma State for nine seasons (2004-12) while also serving as an assistant coach at Texas (2000-03), Texas Tech (1990-99), Howard College (1988-99) and Emporia State (1984-87).