Tennessee Vols fans are currently witnessing one of the best stretches of success in the history of UT athletics.
The football program reached the College Football Playoff last season, the basketball team just went to the Elite Eight, the baseball team is a year removed from winning a national championship, the softball team just made a trip to the College World Series, and the Lady Vols basketball program appears to finally be on the upswing.
Life is good if you’re a Tennessee fan.
Somehow, though, there are still some fans on social media that are spewing negativity.
And Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello has a message for those fans.
“The voices on Twitter, first of all, some of them are bots, they get the loudest voice,” said Vitello on The Tony Basilio Show. “Take a deep breath and reflect on the 2024/2025, academic school year, and look what went on at this university and on this campus, and realize how freaking good you have it.
And if you want it to be better — which if you’re an SEC fan or you’re a competitor, you want it to be better. It wouldn’t have mattered if football, both basketball [teams], it wouldn’t matter if softball would have finished it off, or if we were in Omaha right now, you’re still going to want it to be better if you’re a true competitor. If you want it to be better, than help don’t hurt. And you know, that’s probably going to fall on deaf ears….but recognize how freaking good you have it, and that’ll help make it better.”
Vitello is spot on. The negativity doesn’t help the program in any way. If anything, it hurts. The fans complaining on social media are passionate, and they badly want Tennessee to win. You have to respect the fandom. But at the same time, those fans have to realize that the negativity is counterintuitive to what they want the most — which is for Tennessee to win.
