A college baseball head coach with no pro experience getting a shot as a Major League Baseball manager sounds strange because it doesn’t happen, but if ever there were a college coach perfectly suited to make that jump, it would be …

I’m not sure, actually. But if someone did the research and ranked all of today’s prominent college coaches in terms of MLB fit, Tony Vitello would have a strong case for last place.

Tony Vitello — Tennessee’s intense, eccentric, hilarious national championship coach — to the San Francisco Giants? College baseball wasn’t sure how to take this guy a few years ago when his teams started beating everybody in their path — all while taunting bat-inspecting umpires, wearing fur coats and running the bases with middle fingers extended.

Vols baseball was like Happy Gilmore, luring chest painters to pro golf events and offending traditionalists. Vitello might be a bit excessive for the Carolina League, too. And now he’s in The Show? Tony Vitello? Tony the Tiger and Dick Vitale would have been just as believable before Giants president Buster Posey made this a serious pursuit.

But it’s serious, and real, and compelling. Posey got his guy, a devastating loss for Tennessee. And a major win for people who like fun with their sports. It could be a win for the Giants. It’s absolutely unconventional and a risk. It’s also going to make that franchise, and its press availabilities, much more interesting to the world at large.

It will be fascinating to see if the 47-year-old Vitello’s ability to connect with young people — to make them willing to brawl for him, each other and maybe just for the heck of it — can translate to a pro clubhouse with a wider range of ages.

It will be fascinating to see if he’ll have the same clubhouse intensity or needs to scale it back a bit. The snarling and barking, seemingly every time he thinks his pitcher caught the corner or the opposing pitcher didn’t, sounds exhausting when projected over 162 games.

Auburn walked another run in the 5th after a check-swing call that lit Tony Vitello on fire.

The head coach was ejected after yelling at every umpire. #Vols pic.twitter.com/ARkJgcnEQ1

— Emilie Rae Cochrane (@EmCochranetv) May 4, 2025

All the talking that takes place in the course of a major league season sounds promising. Vitello will fill up the notebooks. He’s got jokes and movie references, sure, but he’s also a really interesting person who can talk about things other than baseball.

If he wins and has staying power, Vitello could be one of the game’s colorful personalities. Think Billy Martin crossed with Yogi Berra. I’m not promising any Lee Elia rants, but I did once watch Vitello open a news conference with a seven-minute statement that included commentary on what a great patriot Noah Webster was, because Vitello was angry that someone had asked one of his players if the season could be defined as a success only if it ended in the College World Series.

That team got there and won it, by the way. When the title-clinching win over Texas A&M was over, I was not able to keep up with Vitello as he sprinted down the left field line, vaulted himself off the tarp into a throng of Tennessee fans and did some crowd surfing. He later compared the moment to a rock star jumping off stage. Which prompted my hard-hitting question: Which rock star?

Tony Vitello just did a full on crowd surf in the stands in left field. Sadly this video starts seconds after Vols fans pushed him back onto the field. pic.twitter.com/q9gOrI7LL8

— Joe Rexrode (@joerexrode) June 25, 2024

“I think Stone Temple Pilots,” he said. “And I promise I don’t do drugs, but that was my first rock concert right there.”

Giants fans will love this guy. If he wins.

All Vitello did at Tennessee was turn a moribund program into a national power, in short order, jumpstarting the process before NIL and the transfer portal changed the way coaches could build programs. UT hadn’t been to an NCAA Tournament since 2005, when Vitello was hired in after the 2017 season; it’s six straight and counting now, including three CWS appearances in four years and the national championship. Tennessee had four CWS appearances in its history before Vitello. From 2021 through 2024, Tennessee was the winningest program in the nation by far and the only one with three 50-win seasons.

A source confirmed to The Athletic that Vitello’s contract with the Giants is a modest raise over his Tennessee salary: $3.5 million for three years with an option for a fourth year.

College football or basketball coaches with that kind of instant and sustained success get pro jobs, and no one bats an eyelash. Maybe Vitello helps juice up the college-to-pro baseball pipeline. Obviously, recruiting was a huge part of his success at Tennessee and is not part of the job description here. Also, coaching baseball and fostering strong locker rooms are two things he did well, and will need to keep doing well.

Drew Gilbert was the strongest personality Vitello had at Tennessee, the player who most symbolized the rise of the program. After a 2022 Tennessee sweep at in-state rival and long-time power Vanderbilt, Gilbert was asked about the chippy nature of the rivalry and said: “When you are stomping on someone’s throat, they tend to get a little quieter.”

Reuniting Vitello with Gilbert means the Giants, if nothing else, will be fully stocked in the competitive edge department.

Vols fans may shed a tear watching from afar, but if you’re a Vols fan, you can’t blame Vitello for taking this opportunity. It’s The Show. It’s the Giants. Beyond that, college sports is in perpetual free agency, which is a headache even for the most resourced programs. And Vitello has worked at a school with significant chunks of NIL money earmarked not just for football, but for two strong and important basketball programs as well.

You can blame the Giants if you want. This sounded like a terrible idea at first mention. It sounds better and better the more you think about it. And if it works, baseball wins.