KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – For the third time this year, Tennessee’s Tony Vitello was named the nation’s top collegiate baseball coach, this time earning D1Baseball.com National Coach of the Year honors.
Vitello, who led the Volunteers to their first national title in program history last month, was also named the National Coach of the Year by Baseball America and the American Baseball Coaches Association prior to Tuesday’s announcement from D1Baseball.com.
Vitello is the only head coach in program history to win multiple national coach of the year honors in the same year and has now done so twice after also accomplishing the feat in 2021.
This marks Vitello’s first national coach of the year honor from D1Baseball.com, and in total, is the sixth time he’s been named the nation’s top college baseball coach in his seven-year stint at UT. Tennessee’s head man was tabbed national coach of the year in 2021 by Perfect Game and the National College Baseball Writers Association. Perfect Game selected Vitello as its national coach of the year in 2022, as well.
In addition to leading the Vols to their first Men’s College World Series title, Vitello guided the Big Orange to a single-season record 60 victories as part of an historic 2024 campaign.
UT made more history as just the fourth conference team to win the SEC regular season title, the SEC Tournament title and a national championship in the same year, cementing itself as one of the greatest teams the sport has ever seen.
The Vols were also able to end the long drought of No. 1 national seeds coming up short in the postseason, becoming just the second No. 1 overall seed to win the MCWS since the tournament switched to its current format in 1999 – joining Miami who did so in 1999.
Vitello was also chosen as the ABCA Southeast Region Coach of the Year, his third time earning that honor in the last four seasons (2021, 2022, 2024).
Under Vitello’s leadership, Tennessee has made three trips to Omaha in the last four seasons, won four combined SEC championships and three SEC eastern division titles. During that four-year span, the Vols’ 211 victories and .773 winning percentage rank No. 1 nationally, planting UT firmly among the nation’s elite programs.
