Tony Vitello reveals how winning national championship was 'taxing' on Tennessee coaches

For every push, there’s a pull. Winning national championships isn’t an exception to the rule. On Wednesday, Tennessee baseball head coach Tony Vitello revealed the unforeseen setbacks of winning the national title last year.

“It was pretty taxing on our group of coaches. You don’t realize how much an added one week or two weeks, what it does to you when you lose that in the summer,” Vitello said. “You’re playing catch up, and then you sprinkle in, ‘Well, let’s go to this event or that event,’ which are great to experience, but now that’s one more day you lose progress.

“Without boring you, the recruiting rules had changed about 18 months ago, but really where it affected was this fall, or where you felt the effect. So December, everybody needed to hit the reset button, and you could sense it when the players came back, like I said, with that renewed energy, even though some of them are new.

“Then with our coaching and support staff, you could sense it was great to hit the reset button. And again, I joked about there being a fine line between last year and the start of next year. I think in house, that fine line for us was that first day we all rallied together. You could feel a sense of hitting the refresh button and getting after it.”

While Tennessee wants to reset, it shouldn’t change too much. The Volunteers finished last season with a 60-13 overall record and a 22-8 mark in conference play. Tennessee was the SEC regular season champion, won the SEC Tournament and took home the national championship.

It was Tennessee’s first national championship in program history. Now, the Volunteers are set to run it back. The team is returning standouts such as catcher Cannon Peebles, first baseman Dalton Bargo and shortstop Dean Curley this season.

However, the Volunteers will also be bolstered by several fresh faces, including transfers like shortstop Gavin Kilen, third baseman Andrew Fischer and pitcher Liam Doyle. Vitello is excited to provide Volunteers fans with another exciting season.

“I love this place. I love dang near everything about it,” Vitello said. “I just want to make sure that I’m contributing in a way that I should and I want to make sure our guys are playing in a way that Vol fans can say, ‘I’m proud of that product on the field, and I want to cheer for them.’

“No one’s invincible, especially in this league. So you win, you lose, it’s part of the deal that we signed up for, literally when you sign the contract, but just want to make sure I’m doing my part, and therefore the program is doing our part to make Vol fans proud and get to see what they deserve to see.”