Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello went on an epci rant after the Volunteers clinched a spot in the College World Series.
Vitello was asked Saturday if the season would be a failure for the No. 1 Volunteers if they fell to Evansville in the Super Regional. The head coach took exception to the question, but waited until the Volunteers won Sunday.
Take it away coach Vitello!
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“But the question was posed basically about our season and if we lose tonight, it’s all for naught,” Vitello said Sunday. “And Blake Burke wasn’t too happy about it. Blake Burke’s got a lot invested in this particular program … But he kept his composure. Clearly you’ve seen me in action. I don’t have great composure, so I’ll speak on it for a sec because it started out as we were No. 1 for most of the season. That’s an incorrect statement. It’s not a fact. I don’t know who was No. 1 preseason because I don’t look at it. It’s a very difficult sport to predict what’s going to happen. Nobody predicted Evansville to be here. But they were. And then also we were not No. 1 majority of the season.
“As a matter of fact, when we first took over I was astonished Kentucky was winning our league, which you guys right up. It’s one of the most, if not the most competitive leagues, and they were No. 1 in the division but somehow we were No. 1 on writers polls, so we weren’t for most of the season. We had to work to get to that point, no question.
That’s when Vitello literally described what success is, but the definition in the dictionary! As a matter of fact, a distinct definition can also be interpreted.
“The word success to me is very important in this room, we make these guys write down what success is for them and teach them that they need to define what a successful at bat is or what a successful outing is whatever,” Vitello said. “Noah Webster’s Dictionary. It says success is a degree or measure of achievement or if you rea another deal online, degree or measure of succeeding. So those two words right there and I definitely ain’t the smartest fella, degree and measure means you get a pick.
“You get to pick what success is, which is pretty awesome. So Noah probably doesn’t know how to define it with these guys where you got to sweat, you got to be in the weight room together. You gotta trust the guy if you give up a ground ball can make the play for you. Or if you give up a run, the other guy will go to work for you. He wasn’t that but he was a thinker and the big thing Noah was, he loved his country, big time patriot, which is kind of a lost art around here. So I don’t know the guy but I got a lot of respect for him. And I liked the way he wrote that whole deal up as far as degree or measure.”
Tony Vitello goes on epic rant after Tennessee wins
Vitello didn’t stop there. He took onus on some poor decisions on the weekend but continued on his own definition of a successful Tennessee season.
“For me I get a pick, I was around my dad a lot,” Vitello said. “He can’t tell me what to do. I work for people here but I’m my own boss when I come here. And for me success is part-group. When our group has success, I consider myself a teammate to these guys. It means I have a level of success. But then there’s also the part where I got a job to do and I gotta make decisions. And if you were to put all my decisions in a bucket for the weekend, I had more wrong decisions than correct decisions. For instance, Dalton Bargo probably should have pinched hit yesterday. He showed me that with some attitude and some success today and I’m not so sure he doesn’t do it yesterday too if we pinch him against Harris because he wants to go home and he’s going home.
“Success for me is being a good teammate and Cal Stark is my guy. That’s my guy. For a lot of reasons, no doubt. So success for me is when I get to judge if you’re talking about success for this team. The one thing I stated after last season because I’m in a bathroom crying with just a lot of emotions, after we’re able to beat Clemson last year was to show up at work every day and get out of my car excited and to have fun and to be around people that want to be here and be in an environment that you’re excited to get to every day.”
Even at this point, Vitello said there’s no pressure on his team now. Well, you’ll see why.
“100% success, Omaha’s real fun to go to if you don’t play that well, it ain’t that fun, but I don’t really give a damn to be honest with you,” Vitello said. “It’s matter of fact, we kind of can pick up where Evansville left off. We’re not supposed to win because the No. 1 never wins. So house money. So I’m going to consider this even more of a success this year. But definitely because of that group, in particular being the way they are.
“And then I think 2022 was brought up. We could have won 30 games in 2022. Jared Dickey who had a phenomenal post on social media today, transformed his entire body after quitting baseball is a part of one of the best teams and was a success as an individual, among many other great things that happened. Hey, you didn’t like the team? So what? They got you talking about college baseball, I can tell you that, to me. That team was a success.”
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