Tony Vitello explains the difficulty of navigating the NCAA transfer portal

Tennessee reached the College World Series for the second time in the last three seasons in 2023, and coach Tony Vitello seems to have found the right formula to challenge for a national title. Successfully navigating the NCAA transfer portal could provide the final few pieces to fully punch through and win it all.

The Volunteers, like everyone else, are grappling with the transfer portal both ways.

Star pitcher Chase Burns entered the portal following the season, a significant blow for Tennessee. But the Volunteers have already started to reload through the transfer portal, snagging Freshman All-American slugger Cannon Peebles from NC State.

Vitello explained how juggling the NCAA transfer portal has just become part of life for coaches.

“There’s always going to be circumstances where a guy feels like maybe he’s being wronged or cheated, maybe innings or at-bats or role on the team,” Vitello said on John & Vince on SportsTalk. “Then there’s going to be guys too we just don’t see or have a vision of how it’s going to be a successful baseball career for a kid. So you might make a suggestion.

“But for us it’s just as much on the recruiting end with the portal thing. You hate to bring a guy in that’s not going to fill a significant role for you. … The one thing I’ll say and brag on our program, you look at the guys that we’ve brought in out of the portal, it’s been for a specific purpose for us and them and it’s worked out really, really well for all of them.”

That’s not to say every single guy works out, but Tennessee has a pretty decent track record so far.

Moreover, the culture that Vitello has helped establish in Knoxville should make things fairly sustainable for the Volunteers. Players want to compete at a high-profile program with a chance to get to Omaha and win a national title.

So Vitello is probably less on defense when it comes to the NCAA transfer portal than most.

“I don’t think it’s ever going to be fear as it relates to our group, we kind of go well out of our way to take care of our kids,” Vitello said. “I’m probably in last place in that category. You deal with Megan (Young) in academics and (Jeff Wood) in the training room, (Quentin Eberhardt), our strength coach, and what they do for our kids on top of what the coaches do really is what I should say is the foundation. The guys are well looked after as people and not just players. I feel like our kids are treated right.”

Tennessee is also happy to help its players transfer when they feel that’s the right call. There didn’t appear to be any bad blood with Burns or others who have departed.

Vitello just wants to make sure everyone reaches a quality destination.

“Some of these kids will go to a place with promises of doing this and that and then they just sit here,” he said. “I know we’ve got a guy leaving our program as a grad transfer, and if he’s just going to sit there I would love him to be around and he would love to be around, but we need to help him find a place where he can play a whole bunch.”