Tony Vitello-loving Vols fans should thank John Currie. Danny White should write fat check

OMAHA, NE - JUNE 24: Head coach Tony Vitello of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates with the national championship trophy with his team, after defeating the Texas A&M Aggies in the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship on June 24, 2024 at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
By Joe Rexrode
Jun 25, 2024

OMAHA, Neb. — Two athletic directors come to mind as Tony Vitello’s Tennessee baseball national championship team moves quickly from Men’s College World Series clincher to Knoxville parade to offseason discussions.

One is John Currie. He’s associated with one of the low points of Tennessee athletics over the past couple of decades, but he also gets permanent credit for identifying Vitello and making this high point possible. Currie, now Wake Forest’s AD, told The Athletic this week of the fruits of that 2017 search: “I’m happy for Tony, I’m happy for UT fans, who have been incredible in supporting him and the program. … He had a great vision and plan of how he was going to win, and when coaches have clear expectations and can paint a picture of what they need and have the self-confidence to hire great people around them, that can be really powerful.”

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The other is Danny White, who is leading this Tennessee athletics renaissance but is a beneficiary of Currie and his predecessor, Dave Hart, hiring Vitello and Rick Barnes, respectively. Vitello and Barnes are the best baseball and men’s basketball coaches in Tennessee history, respectively. And now it’s time for White to compensate Vitello for it — responsibly, but handsomely.

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White knows that. I don’t think any other program would be able to lure Vitello from his program, which beat Texas A&M 6-5 on Monday at Charles Schwab Field to add national championship to a resume’ that includes three MCWS appearances and the most wins in the nation in the past four years. Texas can be ruled out — the Longhorns reportedly landed Aggies coach Jim Schlossnagle, a few hours after he went off on a reporter for asking about that possibility.

But the scene late Monday night, amid the euphoria of Tennessee’s first natty, is still worth noting.

I asked White on the field what he would say about other programs trying to poach Vitello. Some athletic directors in that moment would use the opportunity to give a “Hands off!” message, but White spoke to factors other than compensation, saying: “I don’t think I’d have to even entertain that conversation. Tony knows what he’s built here and it’s special. It’s a relationship between him and his players and the program he’s built, and the fans, that you really can’t replace. Tennessee baseball is here to stay, and he’s the reason why.”

Moments later, Vitello had to leave the celebration for a few moments — he would be back as soon as possible — to take part in the official postgame news conference. On his way, he stopped for a long embrace with Jimmy Sexton, the super agent who has been known to extract many a handsome contract from many an AD.

In that presser, the 45-year-old Vitello hit on a variety of topics, in typically lively fashion. He talked about his time as hitting coach at Arkansas, working for the guy he called “the best coach in the country,” Dave Van Horn.

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“Tennessee came calling, and I knew a little bit about it. I knew it had those ingredients,” Vitello said. “But I’ve been blown away by how friendly everybody is, how involved everybody is. And loyalty is a very important word to everybody, but especially to an Italian fella, and I don’t know that there’s a more loyal fan base and really just community when you’re in that state.”

Both sides of a negotiation talking about relationships and loyalty. Hmmm. It’s worth keeping in mind that an AD and a coach usually have some distance between them in matters like this, and also that a coach is often interested in things beyond personal compensation — salary pool for assistants, facilities and so on.

It’s worth absolutely loving that Tennessee pitcher Zander Sechrist saw White in the back of the room at the presser and said: “I see Danny White back there, so I’m going to put it out there: I hope there’s a lifetime contract coming soon for coach Vitello.”

A May report from Front Office Sports ranked Vitello sixth in compensation among college baseball coaches at $1.5 million a year. That’s a raise White gave him in White’s first year on the job, right after Vitello took the Vols to the 2021 MCWS. That’s pretty good. But it’s still well behind FOS’ reported compensation for the top coach on the list, Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin, at $2.45 million.

Vitello is a wild one, having just unleashed the greatest college coach championship celebration on record, having just filled notebooks during the postseason with tangents from well beyond left field. He has talked about Noah Webster’s patriotism, nausea from eating too much candy, former Detroit Red Wings enforcer Bob Probert, “Major League” catcher Jake Taylor, his preference for brown noise as a sleep aid, the fake voices of waiters at restaurants and the inspiration of Stone Temple Pilots — his first concert — on his plunge into the crowd Monday evening.

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He’s also a smart one. And an impactful one. The outpourings Monday evening weren’t just from Vitello, they were about him.

Sechrist, in his last comments in a UT uniform: “I was blessed enough to have him recruit me. Growing up in a single-mother household and talking to this man mostly every day and every week, he was just like a father figure to me.”

Christian Moore, in his last comments in a UT uniform: “He really cares about his players, and he would do anything for his players. When you have a role model like that, you’ll do anything for him. I’ve told people multiple times, I’d do anything for that man.”

Christy Behnke, mother of Vols pitcher Andrew Behnke: “These players are so loyal to him, and I think it’s because he connects with them in a way I don’t think many coaches would be able to do.”

To Currie’s point, one of the early indicators of success was Vitello’s pursuit of Frank Anderson to be his pitching coach. That’s a big hire, but some young coaches would be hesitant to bring in a former Oklahoma State coach, 20 years their elder, as an assistant. It takes some confidence and humility. And a plan.

Vitello, like all college coaches, had to adjust the plan as the transfer portal and name, image, likeness rights changed how business was done. It’s been nothing but success, in any landscape.

“Great head coaches, legendary head coaches, adapt as those dynamics change,” said Currie, who credited Blair DeBord, then a UT intern and now associate AD at Missouri, for doing a lot of background on Vitello and pushing for him. “The base root of the ability to adapt is intellect. Tony Vitello is a lot of things, and one of those things is he’s really, really smart. That was evident from the first time I spoke with him.”

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And White is smart enough to know it’s time to give Vitello whatever he wants short of an on-campus shrine to grunge rockers. Baseball isn’t football when it comes to driving revenue, not even close. But a national championship program in baseball? It has — he has — made one of the largest fan bases in college sports fall in love. Sports success like this impacts a university.

And it forces an athletic director’s hand. Lindsey Nelson Stadium is partially through upgrades of nearly $100 million, and Vitello has earned program enhancements he needs beyond that. As for his salary, for the sake of a rivalry, how about $2.45 million and one cent?

(Photo: Peter Aiken / Getty Images)

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Joe Rexrode

Joe Rexrode is a senior staff writer for The Athletic covering all things Nashville and some things outside Nashville. He previously worked at The Tennessean, the Detroit Free Press and the Lansing State Journal, spending the past three years as sports columnist at The Tennessean. Follow Joe on Twitter @joerexrode