The start of the 2026 college baseball season is still several months away, but fireworks are already flying in the SEC. According to Pete Thamel and Jeff Passan, Tennessee Volunteers head coach Tony Vitello is leaving Knoxville for the big leagues. On Wednesday, Thamel and Passan reported that Vitello is close to finalizing a deal with the San Francisco Giants.
Vitello's move from Tennessee to the Giants is a historic one, as Vitello will become the first ever coach to make the jump directly from the college ranks to Major League Baseball without any previous professional experience. The move is sending shockwaves across social media, and this season's matchups between the Vols and Tigers are going to look a lot different without Vitello at the helm of the Tennessee program.
Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello is finalizing a deal to become the next manager of the San Francisco Giants, sources tell me and @jeffpassan. Vitello, 47, will be the first ever to jump from college coach to MLB manager without any professional experience. pic.twitter.com/A43z7x8ScP
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) October 22, 2025
LSU vs Tennessee matchups will be a lot different this season
Losing Vitello is a crushing blow for the Tennessee Baseball program. Vitello had been in Knoxville since 2018, and took over a program that was yearning to compete on the national stage. Vitello went 29-27 with a 12-18 mark in SEC play in his first season, but quickly turned the Volunteers into a national contender.
Tennessee started 15-2 before the Covid-19 pandemic cancelled the rest of the 2020 season. After that, Tennessee went to the College World Series three times in four seasons from 2021-24, with Vitello leading the Vols to their first ever national title in 2024. Vitello led Tennessee to a pair of SEC regular season titles, as well as two SEC tournament titles. He was the SEC Coach of the Year in 2022, and the ABCA Coach of the Year in 2024. Vitello leaves Knoxville owning a 341-131 overall record, which is good for a strong .722 win percentage. Replacing him will be no easy task.
The Tigers and Volunteers are scheduled to meet from April 3-5 in Knoxville during the upcoming regular season. The series will be a matchup of the last two College World Series champions, as the Vols went all the way in 2024, and LSU won it all in 2023 and 2025. Needless to say, all three games in this series are going to be appointment television for LSU fans.
LSU opens the 2026 campaign on Friday, Feb. 13 vs Milwaukee at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.