re: Does Lsu baseball still call themselves #1?

Smoke was in a much better position at LSU than when Vitello took over UT.
Smoke took over a team that had just won the College World Series 2 years prior. Let’s compare what Smoke had to work so to compared to Vitello. Let’s take a look at the 5 years prior to each coach and then let’s see who’s done more with less.

LSU(Skip Bertman)
1997- 57-13; SEC Champs; National Champs
1998- 48-19; Omaha Berth #e final poll
1999- 41-24; Super Regional #14 final poll
2000- 52-17; National Champions #1
2001- 44-22; Super Regional #10 final poll

Smoke takes over a national contender in 2002.

UT(Dave Serrano)
2013-22-30 (6th in East)
2014-31-23 (6th in East)
2015-24-26 (5th in East)
2016-29-27 (6th in East)
2017- 27-25 (6th in East)

Vitello takes over a team in 2018 that was 55-120 in SEC play under Serrano. What Vitello has done since taking had been remarkable compared to Smoke. Smoke took over a national contender and went south. Vitello took a team that missed the SEC tournament regularly under Serrano to winning the SEC in his 3rd year.

If Vitello would have followed someone like Skip Bertman he would have continued the winning. Instead he took over a program that wasn’t used to winning to now expecting to win. Vitello is a hell of lot better coach thank Smoke.