Ranking college baseball coaches: Vols' Tony Vitello No. 1, or LSU's Jay Johnson?
For Tennessee fans, Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello is their guy. He’s engrained himself into the Big Orange. He’s a winner, sure, but he’s also got a good energy about him. He connects with fans, and he's always in his team's corner.
But, what if you were the athletic director of a generic SEC baseball program, and you could hire any college coach in the country to run your program for the next several years? Who would you choose?
In that situation, would you still pick Vitello, or perhaps a different SEC coach? The conference is at no shortage of good baseball coaches.
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On this edition of “The Volunteer State,” Blake Toppmeyer of the USA TODAY Network and the News Sentinel’s Mike Wilson ponder the nation’s best baseball coaches.
Earlier in the episode, they discuss the subtle message included within Vitello’s rant defending Tennessee’s success.
As for the best coach discussion, this is not a conversation about a coach’s lifetime achievement – nor is the conversation viewed strictly through the lens of just coaching the game.
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Rather, the question is considered from the viewpoint of: If you could have any coach running your generic SEC baseball program, who would you want?
Here’s how we see our three choices:
3 (tie). Brian O’Connor (Virginia) and Link Jarrett (Florida State)
O’Conner won a national championship with Virginia in 2015, and the Cavaliers have become a consistent power these past few seasons. Jarrett, after previously succeeding at Notre Dame and UNC Greensboro, needed just two seasons to restore FSU to the CWS.
2. Jay Johnson (LSU)
Johnson’s résumé speaks for itself. He proved himself at Arizona before winning a national championship at LSU in just his second season. He’s skilled at working the transfer portal. Why is he not No. 1? Coaching LSU is like starting on third base. It’s a storied program where multiple coaches thrived. That’s not a knock on Johnson. It's just a job with more built-in advantages than the No. 1 on this list.
1. Tony Vitello (Tennessee)
True, Vitello lacks the national championship, but he’s just 45 years old. That could be coming - perhaps later this month. He uplifted a program that had been anchored near the bottom of the SEC and made the Vols elite. He’s a tremendous recruiter, and he can navigate the portal. He breathes life into a fan base. As far as pure program builders, you can’t do better than Vitello.
Honorable mention: Tim Corbin (Vanderbilt)
There was a time, just a handful of years ago, when the case could be made for Corbin to be No. 1 on this list. Corbin, a two-time national champion, didn’t just build a program. He built a VandyBoys brand. He’s an excellent coach, but he hasn’t been as successful as some others on this list in navigating the NIL/transfer era.
Also considered: Jim Schlossnagle (Texas A&M), Kevin O’Sullivan (Florida)
These two coaches are proven. Their teams are CWS fixtures, and O’Sullivan won a national championship in 2017.
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Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist and a published author. Mike Wilson covers the Vols with award-winning coverage for the News Sentinel. He's authored no books, but likes to read them. You can subscribe to read all their coverage, or check out the SEC Unfiltered newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Ranking college baseball coaches: Tony Vitello or Jay Johnson No. 1?
