Vols Baseball Coach Shuts Down Narrative That He’s Been Desperately Buying Players With NIL Money
Tennessee head baseball coach Tony Vitello has built the Vols into one of the most feared programs in all of the country. His team is gearing up for another trip to Omaha after dispatching Evansville in the Super Regional over the weekend.
Although the success is acknowledged, many disagree on how he arrived at this stage. Should coaching be given credit, or did he just use a ton of NIL money to acquire his most recent rosters?
With Tennessee coming off a 27–25 season in which they won only seven conference games, Vitello took over the program in 2018. In Knoxville, he felt a near-instant turnaround.
All save one season, in which the Vols won at least 40 games, his rookie campaign being the lone exception. Three 50-win outputs are included in there, with 2024 seeing the first one.
With a victory on Sunday, Tennessee (55–12) secured their spot in the College World Series and will start as the top team in the country.
In the previous four seasons, this is the team’s third trip to Omaha.
When Tony Vitello was hired by UTK, college athletics was going through a significant transition. The NCAA has virtually been overtaken by the development of NIL and the transfer site, which many consider to be the best recruiting tool available.
And coincidentally, since Vitello took over, the Vols have recruited players into the Top 10 collegiate baseball classes each year, with Tennessee having the top cycle in 2024, according to Perfect Game.
Some fans of the sport, especially rival D1 coaches, wonder if players have been swayed by money given the rapid turnarounds in both recruitment and on the field.
Chad Holbrook called NIL ‘Priority No. 1′ when speaking on the Vols’ baseball success.
The former South Carolina and current College of Charleston head coach joined the Inside the Gamecocks show last week to talk about postseason play.
Tennessee was brought into the conversation as hosts made a pitch for listeners to support the Gamecocks’ NIL programs.
“Right now, NIL is the most important factor in major college baseball,” stated Holbrook. “There is no doubt that Tennessee is where it is due of NIL. They have some excellent players because of their excellent NIL program.
Holbrook gave respect to the UT coaches as well, but given the Vols’ remarkable success over the past few seasons, his remarks support a story that has been going around. Tony Vitello disputes the idea that his program was created with no funding at all.
He criticized the implication in a press conference following Tennessee’s victory against Evansville in the Super Regional.
“We’ve done it, I think, from the ground up, here,” the head coach said in Sunday’s postgame presser. “Anybody that’s thinking about visiting our place when we’re recruiting, and you think this is a place you can come and have your hand out to see how much money we can give you, don’t waste our time, and don’t waste your time either.”
He’s reportedly been furious with “bag” rumors, and he’s actually been heard saying that the situation is quite the opposite. Vitello claims that a number of prospects take less money to come to Knoxville because the want to play for a winner.
The program is bigger than an NIL budget!
The accusations obviously struck a nerve with the Vols baseball coach, but they’ll likely be back of mind come College World Series. Tennessee enters as the field’s top seed, and they’ll look to bring home the first national title in the team’s history.
