Tony Vitello was so heartbroken he could physically feel it.

Missouri State had walked into Arkansas’ Baum Stadium and ended the Razorbacks’ season on June 5, 2017, weeks before Vitello ever imagined. The distraught Arkansas hitting coach headed to a taco place in Fayetteville, ordered three times more than normal and went home after the jarring NCAA Regional loss.

He watched a movie and then another. “Tombstone” started after midnight, and Vitello couldn't resist.

“Oh hell, I have to at least watch a little bit of this,” Vitello thought.

As Vitello spurned sleep in favor of the 1993 Western, his phone rang around 1:30 a.m. It was Tennessee athletics director John Currie.

“I was upset still but my mind was racing,” Vitello said.

That fateful phone call launched Vitello into a 36-hour blur. It united him with Tennessee baseball and put him on a path to coaching superstardom, setting the stage five years later for him to lead the juggernaut Vols in their pursuit of College World Series glory this season and a stake as one of the greatest teams of all time.

“I like people who are willing to bet on themselves,” Currie told Knox News in an exclusive interview. “'I am going to take this job because I see the opportunity. I know what I can do and I am going to do it.'”

How Tony Vitello entered Tennessee's search

That first call lasted a couple of hours. Vitello finished “Tombstone” before he fell asleep on the couch with his phone next to him. Currie, now the athletics director at Wake Forest, told him to expect a phone call in the morning, and Vitello didn’t want to miss it.

“(The coaching search) had to be one of the quirkiest ones that has ever gone down and one of the quickest,” Vitello said.

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UT vetted a handful of candidates, both head coaches and assistant coaches, after Dave Serrano stepped down following the 2017 season after mostly losing seasons.

Currie and Blair DeBord, a special project manager at UT and former baseball player at Kansas State, led the search. DeBord spearheaded the efforts to build a profile of its ideal candidate by talking to former players and longtime SEC baseball figureheads.

Tennessee needed a coach with the ability to recruit at a high level and build a roster with power arms and power bats — a hallmark of winning teams in the SEC. Simply, the Vols lacked the roster and talent to win. They needed a coach who could stockpile talent and develop it.

“One of the things we noticed about Tony was that every place he had been, they had really good players,” said DeBord, now an associate athletics director for development at Memphis. “It was this trend of Tony was going to places and now all of a sudden, they were winning at a really high level.”

Vitello, 43, had a proven track record as a recruiter and developer at Missouri, TCU and Arkansas. DeBord, a natural and cerebral right-hand man for Currie in the search, provided firsthand experience of Vitello’s ability to relate to players.

DeBord was a standout prep prospect in Manhattan, Kansas, and was destined to be a multiyear starter at Kansas State. Vitello, then Missouri's pitching coach and recruiting coordinator, left a lasting impression with DeBord as “one of the coolest guys I had ever met." DeBord always planned to go to Kansas State, but Vitello made him second-guess himself as a recruit.

That experience carried weight with Currie, who trusted DeBord and the character reference he provided.

“All the dynamics that Tony Vitello represents are all the right dynamics that we needed,” Currie said. “But especially his ability to connect with his student-athletes and build a competitive team culture."

Why John Currie kept thinking about Tony Vitello

Two phone calls followed Currie’s initial late-night contact. UT administrators Angie Boyd-Keck, Carmen Tegano and Donna Thomas called in the morning for a follow-up conversation.

“He is a problem-solver and he is smart,” DeBord recalled Tegano saying. “He can get through stuff. I can just tell by how he is answering questions.”

Currie called again as Vitello headed to Baum Stadium for exit interviews and recruiting planning. He asked Vitello where he could fly to that day. They agreed upon Washington — the nation's capital. Vitello let Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn know the situation and searched for flights on Kayak, the online travel agency, in his office.

“He is really smart and is intentional about everything he does," Currie said.

DeBord was actually the first person from UT who had reached out to Vitello that season, given their prior relationship. Vitello brushed aside the overture while Arkansas played in the regional, not wanting any distractions.

Currie proceeded with the coaching search as Vitello focused on trying to help Arkansas reach the College World Series.

“Tony kept being on my mind,” Currie said. “He really hit all the things that we wanted even though he hadn't been a head coach”

Currie was known to target past head coaches in his searches. Yet he broke that mold when he hired Vols tennis coach Chris Woodruff earlier in 2017, promoting the associate head coach to the top position. And he did it again when he hired Vitello.

Vitello wowed Currie with his energy and understanding of who he was as a person. His baseball savvy and enthusiasm popped. He also displayed sound awareness of what it would take to be successful at Tennessee.

“He was just ready for the opportunity,” DeBord said. “He was ready for the role. … He felt in his heart like he could do it at Tennessee.”

Everything he did backed up what Currie and DeBord had already known or  garnered through research. Vitello called it “a reframing” of the way to view the job, which had its obvious challenges with facilities and successful rivals.

“A lot of it got boiled down to personalizing everything to Tennessee,” Vitello told Knox News. “Why don’t we make Tennessee baseball as good as we can and not worry about anyone else? And let’s tailor it to what our place is like with the park and campus and town.”

Why Frank Anderson was important

Vitello sat on a couch in Currie’s hotel room in Washington, less than 24 hours after scarfing down those tacos on his couch in Fayetteville.

It was highly informal. But that worked for Vitello.

“I didn’t really have time to prepare or overthink things,” Vitello said. “Maybe that was a blessing in disguise.”

Vitello flew into Washington late on June 6, then waited to meet with Currie. He filled the time by talking to Frank Anderson and Sean McCann, two of his longtime sounding boards and eventual hires at Tennessee as pitching coach and video coordinator, respectively.

Anderson was in favor of the opportunity for Vitello, and Vitello wanted to bring the decorated former head coach with him.

“He had a really good feel for his weaknesses as a coach and what he needed to supply himself with on his staff to be successful,” DeBord said.

Currie and Vitello met for three hours, their first in-person meeting.

Vitello’s vision for a staff resonated with Currie. He knew not only the type of coaches he needed around him, but who they would be as he proposed a staff.

Anderson would be the pitching coach, a veteran presence to help Vitello navigate a new situation.

"Instead of having to call him, I could just walk down the hall," Vitello said.

Vitello envisioned a hitting coach who could share the burden of recruiting. Josh Elander was the fit. McCann, whom Currie knew from overlap at Kansas State, was another veteran voice to hire.

“Why not make that as great a group of coaches as possible?” Vitello said. “Then combine it with the fans in Knoxville, you have a great recruiting tool. Then if recruit great people, that is your niche — relationships. …

“That is kind of your weapon to go into battle in the SEC.”

Currie was well-versed in Vitello’s background. He became familiar with him during his time as Kansas State athletics director, and was floored sitting with him into the night in Washington. As Vitello asserted himself as the man for the job above two other finalists, Currie was left feeling that Vitello's success wouldn't just be likely — it would be inevitable.

“He had essentially been an offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator,” Currie said. “It is just so rare that you would have an assistant coach who has not just done all those things, but been the best in their league in those elements.”

Tony Vitello, the perfect fit

Currie told Knox News he stopped to take a picture as he walked through Reagan National Airport on May 24 after interviewing Megan Gebbia, his eventual hire as the Wake Forest women’s basketball coach.

He texted the image of a nondescript seating area by a food court to Vitello.

“Here’s the seat where you signed that crappy contract!” Currie wrote.

“Worked out alright!!” Vitello replied.

Following the meeting with Vitello, Currie worked through the night with former deputy athletics director Reid Sigmon and then-university lead general counsel Matthew Scoggins. They had to prepare a contract.

Currie and Vitello met again the next morning, and Currie offered Vitello the job. Vitello had the contract reviewed by a pair of advisers as he rode to the airport with his soon-to-be boss.

Vitello packed the only orange shirt he had, a deeper orange shirt with a dark gray collar, and wore it when he signed the contract with an orange pen. Currie took a picture on that day, too, and posted it on Twitter on June 7, announcing Vitello as the baseball coach.

“It was one of the few times where I have had that feeling that the kids get from us when we recruit them,” Vitello said. “This guy believes in me. He recruited me. He gave me an opportunity.”

Vitello arrived in Knoxville a day later and was introduced June 9. Currie called Vitello "a perfect fit" at an introductory news conference that day, and Vitello has spent the past five years backing it up.

He took Tennessee to the NCAA Tournament in 2019, the first appearance since 2005. He had the Vols roaring to start the 2020 season before the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down. UT won 50 games and went to the College World Series in 2021, then had an even bigger 2022 with a roster laden with first-round MLB talent and well-developed pieces.

The Vols (53-7) have been the No. 1 team in the country for two months, won the SEC regular-season title by a record six games and never trailed in the SEC Tournament en route to their first title since 1995. They will open NCAA Tournament play in the Knoxville Regional on Friday (6 p.m., SEC Network) against Alabama State (34-23) at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

“It isn’t always about hiring the biggest name or hiring the most expensive person," DeBord said. "It is about finding the right person for the job. It is about fit and what your program needs at the time. Tony was that.”

DeBord was in Knoxville when the Vols hosted a regional last June. He watched from the balcony outside the coaches' offices in the opener against Wright State. He knew the buzz had grown about Tennessee baseball, but seeing it was different. He gazed across a packed Lindsey Nelson Stadium, and watched it reach a fever pitch when Drew Gilbert hit a walk-off grand slam.

It was the vision that Tennessee had when Currie called Vitello in 2017 — and it was real.

“This is what everyone thought it could be and Tony made it happen,” DeBord said.

Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it. 

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello was hired by Vols in 36-hour blur