Danny White leaves the door open for Tennessee to have Frank Anderson as interim head baseball coach in 2026

Tennessee athletic director Danny White is not ruling out the possibility that Frank Anderson will remain the interim coach for the 2026 season. The pitching coach, Anderson added the title of interim on Wednesday following the news that coach Tony Vitello had accepted a job to become the manager of the San Francisco Giants.

Speaking in a press conference to address Vitello’s departure, White was asked whether he hoped to name a full-time head coach before the 2026 season begins at the end of February. He didn’t give an answer one way or the other, as it is clear he is still weighing his options as of this moment.

“I’m not putting myself in a box with anything right now,” he said. “This is kind of unprecedented to have a coaching transition at this time of year. So I don’t know how thing plays out.”

Anderson coached at Oklahoma State from 2004-2012, where he led the Pokes to a 329-208 record. He was fired following the 2012 season and latched on as an assistant at Houston from 2013-2017 before.

Frank Anderson then joined Tennessee following the 2017 season. He was named the interim head coach over associate head coach Josh Elander, who received a large outcry from fans once the move was officially announced.

Tennessee baseball soared to great heights under Vitello, winning the first College World Series title in program history during the 2024 season. It was one of three times he directed the Vols to Omaha, along with winning two regular season SEC titles and one SEC Tournament title in the span of eight years.

Overall, Vitello accumulated a 341-131 record during his time in Knoxville, including a 125-85 mark in conference play. Replacing him won’t be easy, especially with such a short window to find a new coach.

As White mentioned, it’s not typical for a college baseball coach to leave a program at this time of the year. Vitello makes a near-unprecedented move from a sitting college baseball coach job straight into a major-league manager role.

While Dick Howser went straight from Florida State in 1979 to the New York Yankees as manager in 1980, he was previously the Yankees’ bench coach and served as interim manager in 1978. Vitello has no prior MLB experience.

That makes what happens next for Tennessee baseball unpredictable. For now, Anderson is in charge of the program, and we’ll see whether that continues to start this upcoming season.