Author: Mikesportz
OMAHA, Neb. — Jake Rucker had a voicemail from an unknown Arkansas number. Rucker settled onto the Team Tennessee bus following a game in the Sunbelt Classic in McAlester, Oklahoma, in June 2017. He clicked the curious notification and listened to the voicemail. The caller identified themself and Rucker freaked out. It was Tony Vitello, the freshly hired Tennessee baseball coach. Vitello wanted Rucker to join him in Knoxville. When Tony called me, it was a dream come true,” Rucker said Thursday. “I didn’t think that was going to happen to me.” TICKETS:Tennessee baseball tickets in College World Series: Best…
OMAHA, Nebraska (KBTX) – Texas A&M and Tennessee baseball square off in the Men’s College World Series Finals with both programs going for their first national championships. The Aggies and Vols cruised through their brackets in Omaha both going 3-0. Tennessee showed off its powerful lineup putting up a combined 25 runs in those three games. Texas A&M has gotten to this point thanks to a strong pitching staff, only giving up 3 runs so far in Omaha. While the pitching and offensive lineup is intriguing, the head coaching matchup is just as interesting. Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello was…
Tim “TJ” Hicks loved coaching in the Matt Leinart Flag Football League. The West Virginia native, a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan, would typically spend all Friday night at the field. If he wasn’t guiding his own team, he would be scouting others. Hicks died doing when he loved. He suffered a heart attack at Jack Hammett Sports Complex in Costa Mesa while coaching a girls’ team on Nov. 17, and passed away soon after. He was 56 years old and left behind his wife Cindy and two sons, Jackson and Sam.
Last night was oh so close to being magical. The Yankees went down early on against the Braves, giving the Orioles a nice chance of re-taking the AL East lead. Meanwhile in Houston, the O’s snagged a 3-2 lead in the top of the fifth inning, had already gotten into the Astros’ bullpen, and still had Grayson Rodriguez on the mound. Things were lining up well! But then, disaster struck. Rodriguez surrendered a three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth, Jacob Webb and Dillon Tate were putrid in relief, and the Orioles lost. You cannot blame the offense though.…
The Tennessee Volunteers have one of the best college baseball coaches in the country in Tony Vitello. He has done well since taking over the Tennessee Volunteers program in 2018, as he currently has a 292-111 record (.725 winning percentage). However, people are wondering how his contract looks for the results of the team. According to WBIR, Tony Vitello is earning a minimum of $1,612,000 this season and an extra $28,000 if the Vols can defeat the Texas A&M Aggies in the 2024 College World Series. The contract has a few different kickers, but it is simple to understand once…
Tony Vitello on Saturday will lead No. 1 national seed Tennessee against Jim Schlossnagle and No. 3 Texas A&M in the College World Series best-of-three-game series. Both programs will be gunning for their first-ever national college baseball championship. But, 14 years ago, Schlossnagle and Vitello weren’t coaches vying against the other for a college baseball national championship: They were aligned and coaching in the same dugout, after Schlossnagle hired Vitello as his recruiting coordinator for the TCU baseball program. Schlossnagle, the former TCU baseball coach — who left the program to take over at Texas A&M beginning with the 2022…
Tony Vitello on Saturday will lead No. 1 national seed Tennessee against Jim Schlossnagle and No. 3 Texas A&M in the College World Series best-of-three-game series. Both programs will be gunning for their first-ever national college baseball championship. But, 14 years ago, Schlossnagle and Vitello weren’t coaches vying against the other for a college baseball national championship: They were aligned and coaching in the same dugout, after Schlossnagle hired Vitello as his recruiting coordinator for the TCU baseball program. Schlossnagle, the former TCU baseball coach — who left the program to take over at Texas A&M beginning with the 2022…
In 2011 – after eight years on staff at his alma mater, Missouri – Tony Vitello headed to TCU as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He spent three seasons in Fort Worth under Jim Schlossnagle before leaving to Arkansas and, eventually, becoming the head coach at Tennessee. Now in his sixth year with the Vols, Vitello did something no coach has done on Rocky Top since 1951 by taking the program to the College World Series final. Texas A&M awaits starting Saturday night in the third year of Schlossnagle’s tenure, and it means Vitello will go up against his…
Either Tennessee or Texas A&M will leave the 2024 College World Series with its first national championship. The losing side will walk away from Omaha with a bitter taste in its mouth. Either way, there will be no bad blood between the two head coaches. Tennessee’s Tony Vitello and Texas A&M’s Jim Schlossnagle have a longstanding relationship, with Schlossnagle taking on the role of elder statesman between the two. Yet while Schlossnagle, 53, has been a head coach longer than Vitello has, it’s Vitello, 45, who has built a powerhouse. Tennessee was the No. 1 overall seed in 2022 and…
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel leaving for another job isn’t a concern that many UT fans have. Heupel seems incredibly happy at Tennessee and he has the football program on a roll. In a sport where it can be difficult to create a positive culture (due to the large number of players and staff involved in a program), Heupel has managed to quickly build a family-oriented culture that is generating plenty of excitement among recruits and current players. There’s zero reason for him to consider leaving.