Danny White names Tennessee’s interim head baseball coach, comments on coaching search
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Tennessee athletic director Danny White spoke to the media on Wednesday following Tony Vitello’s departure to become the new manager of the San Francisco Giants.
The Volunteers are holding fall practices and the 2026 season is roughly 4 months away, meaning UT will be moving quickly to replace Vitello. White revealed that pitching coach Frank Anderson will serve as the interim head coach while a national search is conducted.
“The players are our number one priority right now, we’ll be visiting with them later today, as I always do, embarking on a search,” White told reporters. “I’ll be letting them know, I’ve asked Frank Anderson to serve as our interim head coach. The terminology I used with Frank is, I need a shepherd right now, I need a day-to-day leader.”
When Vitello to San Francisco was announced, Tennessee associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Josh Elander emerged as a leading option to be the next UT head coach. White acknowledged the possibility, saying he considers Elander a candidate for the full-time job.
“I’m asking Josh Elander to be a candidate and we are going to conduct a national search and expect a ton of interest because of what Tony and his staff and our fan base and everyone is built here,” White said. “I think it’s an extremely attractive position, obviously a little bit unique time of year.
“I’m going to work as fast as I can and get through this process and eliminate the uncertainty that our players are feeling right now as quickly as possible. We have a lot of talent here and expect to have an extremely competitive baseball team this spring.”
White was later asked to detail what went into making Anderson the interim head coach as opposed to Elander.
“Yeah, combination of factors. Frank’s obviously been a head coach, but probably more importantly, as quickly as I’d like to move, I’d like Josh to be able to focus on his candidacy and he’s kind of in the middle of all this too,” White said. “Up until this morning, the entire staff didn’t know the decision that Tony was going to make. So (Elander’s) been focused on recruiting and coaching his players.
“We have an incoming class. There’s a lot going on. I didn’t want to throw this on him now while also, uh, maybe treating an interview as an afterthought. I want him to be able to focus on the interview process.”
More from White on finding Vitello’s replacement can be heard below:
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
