Win or Lose, the Vitello Era is Already Defined By Success

Ellie Williamson

June 20, 2024

Tennessee Volunteer faithful are living in a moment of time where football, baseball, legendary coaches, and national championships intersect. Again. 

Let’s go back to 1951. It was a truly different era. (I guess it was anyways. My dad wasn’t even born yet. It was also the last time the Vols were a serious threat for the College World Series title. Now on the doorstep of a title, it is time to create some destiny.

The location is the same: Omaha, Nebraska. And both the football team and baseball team are on the rise. Is that a thin thread for similarity, maybe, but it is what we have. It could also play in reverse.

Follow me.

The 1951 Tennessee football team went into a National Championship game ranked as the top team team in the nation. The coach of that team was none other than the legendary Robert Reese Neyland. General Neyland and the Vols would go on to win that football game and bring home  a fourth football National Championship title to Knoxville.

Also in 1951, the Tennessee Vols were the SEC Champions and making a run to the College World Series title. General Neyland would throw out the 1st pitch for the baseball team in the finals of that game. The Vols fell short that day and came in second place to the Oklahoma Sooners. 

Fast forward to 2024. Another legendary coach is in circulation with Tony Vitello. And Tennessee is still an everything school. 

The connection between the Aggies, General Neyland, football and baseball for the Tennessse Volunteers, connects to a winning pedigree. It’s been over a decade since a National Title has been mentioned in the same sentence as the Tennessee Volunteers. But, here we are two baseball games away from it feeling like ‘98.

Here are 3 things I’m going to watch for, using the General’s Maxims for  the best of 3 championship series in Omaha. 

• If at first the game—or the breaks—go against you, don’t let up, put on more steam: Time heals all wounds. Both teams have been able to rest and reset. This brings a whole new pressure of preparation for both. How these two teams spent two days off in Omaha will play a major role as they are coming out of the gate on Game 1. Neither team has their back against the wall just yet. They are both fresh. The momentum will have to be earned. We will need more steam to keep the edge. 

  
  

•  Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way—SCORE: This one is easy. The tournament starts over now. The little mistakes in fielding are behind us. We must play for the Aggies to make some errors and when they do, capitalize with the consistency in our bats. Tony Vitello trusts this team. They trust each other. They must stay with the RBI stat line that has made a dominant appearance on the stat sheet. Tennessee has scored 14 of its 25 runs in Omaha with two outs, the most of any team. They are hitting .429 (18-42) with two outs, best of any team in the field. They must capitalize off these breaks once again in the Championship Series.  

  
  

• Carry the fight to our opponent and keep it there for 60 minutes: we must not forget that game of baseball hasn’t changed since the 1951 days. There is still  9 innings of play. In the 7th we can’t afford to slow down, regardless of the score. Baseball ends after 9 full innings. We could even see these two teams play extra baseball. The lead off hitter and the 2 spot for Tennessee have been back to back brutal spots for opponents. Moore: 7/10, 6 R, 2 RBI, BB, 2 2B, 2 3B, HR and Burke: 6/10, 4 R, 5 RBI, BB, HR. A Combined: 13/20, 10 R, 7 RBI, 2 BB, 2 2B, 23B, 2 HR

For the last 7 years, The Coach Vitello era is connected to its own legacy .  

"I'm just following these guys. There are certain tasks I have to do, and there's direction I give them, and they'll listen. But kind of following them right now. Makes it nice”.  

History is once again in the making for The University of Tennessee.