Frank Anderson to be named interim head coach of Tennessee Baseball

Tennessee Director of Athletics Danny White announced on Wednesday that Tennessee pitching coach Frank Anderson will be the interim coach for the program on a day-to-day basis while the search for the program’s next head coach is officially underway.

Tony Vitello is headed to San Francisco to become the manager of the Giants, Volquest confirmed on Wednesday. He will become the first sitting college baseball coach to manage a big league organization with no prior professional baseball experience.

Tennessee baseball is currently inside the fall practice window and is currently scheduled to play an intrasquad scrimmage in Nashville at First Horizon Ballpark on Saturday.  

Anderson spent the eight seasons on Rocky Top with Tony Vitello, helping the Vols win the 2024 College World Series – the first national championship in program history. The pitching coach was instrumental in helping the Vols reach Omaha three times over a four-year span an super regional play five-straight seasons.

“I’m going to enjoy this first,” Anderson laughed when Volquest asked if he’s ready to be back in Omaha again while celebrating moments after the final out of the national championship in June of 2024. “It’s such a good group of kids. Our pitching staff, that’s not how you draw it up. It’s just satisfying, man, to see how that thing worked. Guys had to come back and pitch again on short rest.”

The Vols finished 2025 ranked No. 14 in ERA (4.06) and WHIP (1.29).

Tennessee finished the 2024 national championship season with the sixth-best ERA (3.89) in the country, fifth-best WHIP (1.25) and third-most strikeouts (700). A season ago in 2023, the Tennessee staff placed second nationally in ERA (3.63), WHIP (1.16) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.03). Anderson was named the Rawlings Pitching Coach of the Year following the 2022 campaign, where Vols hurlers led the country in ERA (2.51), WHIP, strikeout-to-walk ratio (695/164), walks allowed per nine innings and hits allowed per nine innings.

Through eight seasons at Tennessee, the instructor has coached 29 players who have been selected in the MLB Draft, including a program-record six in 2023. Chase Dollander previously headlined the draft picks for Anderson, as he was selected eighth overall by the Rockies in 2023 while Garrett Crochet was taken 11^th overall by the White Sox in 2020. Liam Doyle was taken fifth overall by the Cardinals this past summer.   

“I was headed to Arizona State and kind of made a U-turn. He talked me into coming over and taking a look at it,” Anderson said of Tony Vitello’s recruiting pitch to him after he was hired in 2017. “I wanted to win a national championship again and I wanted to do it at a different school. I had never coached in the SEC. That was another thing, too, I wanted to see if my little schtick would work in the SEC.”

Prior to arriving at Tennessee, Anderson spent five seasons as an assistant coach at Houston. He was formerly the head coach at Oklahoma State for nine seasons (2004-12) while also serving as an assistant coach at Texas (2000-03), Texas Tech (1990-99), Howard College (1988-99) and Emporia State (1984-87).