Danny White on the hire of Josh Elander: “He earned it”

LEXINGTON, Ky. —Tennessee football is minutes away from getting started at Kroger Field against the Kentucky Wildcats this evening, but Athletics Director Danny White joined the Vol Network in pregame show ‘Big orange Countdown’ quickly beforehand to speak on the hiring of baseball coach Josh Elander on Saturday.  

“He earned it. He earned it over the last eight years in building our program into the powerhouse it is today and he earned it during the search process,” White said. “It was a thorough search. We really vetted the best candidates across the country. Owed it to the program and where we are to do that. I thought Josh was fantastic in the interview and you don’t really get the chance to see an assistant coach in that setting until that moment. We certainly felt like he presented himself as the head coach and, ultimately, our head coach.

“We were proud to name him that today.”

Elander has spent all eight seasons on Rocky Top as part of Vitello’s staff and was promoted to associate head coach in 2022. Elander has also served as recruiting coordinator during his time at Tennessee, leading in the role where the Vols have never finished outside the top-10 and have ranked lower than sixth in just one cycle – Vitello’s first cycle in 2018 (9^th).  

“The culture of the program, how that has been built, how he would continue to lead that. The elite recruiting we have been fortunate to enjoy,” White said of Elander standing out in the interview process. “How he could continue to lead that. How he portrayed himself as the CEO of the program and managing his staff. We talked about transitioning from the role of being an assistant to being a head coach. I have been through a lot of these. I was thoroughly impressed. We had some hard decisions to make because there’s some other really good candidates and good options. I couple all those conversations with the candidates with also what I learned from our leadership group with our players. They were phenomenal and really helped me understand what is happening the program. I really feel like my job is to match those things up and I feel like we did that today with Josh.”

The top-assistant has played a major role in sixth NCAA Tournament appearances, which included three trips to the College World Series and five-straight Super Regional appearances. Obviously, Tennessee won the national championship in 2024 – the first ever in program history. Elander has also been a part of four Southeastern Conference championships during his time with the program.   

Elander has coached 27 draft picks while at Tennessee as the primary hitting and catching instructor. Six of the 27 were first rounders, a list that includes Drew Gilbert (2022), Jordan Beck (2022), Christian Moore (2024), Blake Burke (2024), Gavin Kilen (2025) and Andrew Fischer (2025).

“I started the conversation with, ‘I know you guys love coach E, (but) this isn’t talking about individual candidates. I need to learn from your perspective what is going on with our program. We have been dominant. We’ve had a historic run but every program has strengths and weaknesses. Take me through those.,’” White said of his meeting with the leadership council on Thursday. “They were outstanding. I spent about an hour with those guys. We took down a bunch of notes. I used that in the interview process to ask follow-up questions and things from candidates.”

Under Elander’s leadership, Tennessee hammered 131 home runs in 2025 – marking the fourth consecutive season the program has hit 100 or more home runs.

Elander, 34, is a native of Round Rock, Texas where he attended and played baseball at TCU from 2010-2012. The catcher was a sixth round pick by the Atlanta Braves in 2012 and played parts of five seasons in Danville, Lynchburg, Rome and Kane County – reaching as high as Advanced A.

The standout named the Atlanta Braves Minor League Player of the Year in 2013 and was honored with the Atlanta Braves Hank Aaron Award in 2013 as well.  

“It is one of the fastest for sure. The signing date is right upon us,” White said on the quick coaching search. “We needed to move really quickly. It is an odd time of year to be in a baseball transition. We are all really happy for Tony (Vitello). The first ever in college baseball to get a big league job. It does create a difficult dynamic in the time of year. We needed to move fast, but we didn’t move too fast to make the right choice.”