Who would have thought Vitello could be surpassed as the biggest a-hole in baseball

Vitello is having the best week of his life. Wins the big one, does so with a team that does everything well and doesn’t act like a bunch of goons in the process, and all but shirks the heel image by sinply giving an appreciative presser in contrast with what Schloss has done the past 48 hours.

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I feel like Vitello has mellowed out quite a bit. It’s easy to see why players want to sign with Tennessee. Just sucks he’s going to be a thorn in LSU’s side for a very long time lot of good young coaches in the conference

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I am sure its only about the love of the game and team, nothing to do with the money being thrown around.

I’ve noticed a lot of fans don’t like Vitello and it makes me wonder if it has anything to do with their respective team not beating him much

It’s because he and his first few teams were raging douchebags. This years team was much more tame by comparison and while Tony had his moments, he seemed to reel it in as well. I’ll chalk it up to a young coach maturing and expect that we see more of the same moving forward.

Baseball players in general are pretty douchey and do douchey stuff. It’s par for the course. Vitello took it a step further than the norm with his temper tantrums and the actions of some of his players. People took notice because it was beyond the pale and it just wasn’t necessary; they were winning with or without the sideshow. Seems like this year he figured out when to be an arse and when to let the high level of play on the field just speak for itself.

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I’ll chalk it up to a young coach maturing and expect that we see more of the same moving forward.

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Vitello actually addressed this very point in a number of pressers recently. His explanation wasn't about maturing personally. When he came to Tennessee, Vitello felt like our program needed something to make it stand out in a sea of serious competition. He chose to build his brand on brash attitude and recruited players who were that way.

May not be popular amongst the fans of other programs, but it worked. Now that he has the documented successes of the last few years and solid brand/name recognition, he doesn't need to push the envelope.