Tony Vitello Ecstatic For MLB Opener Against Yankees, Explains Why He Isn't Changing Coaching Style

Tony Vitello has coached more than 470 games at the college level, boasts a winning percentage of .722, and led the Tennessee Volunteers to a national title in 2024. In other words, the 47-year-old is comfortable as the number one guy in the dugout, but he'll be experiencing something no other manager in the history of Major League Baseball has come March 25.

Vitello left Knoxville after the 2025 campaign to take over the San Francisco Giants, making him the first coach in baseball history to move directly from college to managing a Major League team without any prior professional coaching experience.

Aside from the obvious question of how a college coach will fare in The Show, it's Vitello's coaching style that baseball fans are most curious to see in an MLB dugout.

During Vitello's time at Tennessee, the Volunteers were seen as the villains of college baseball, with players wearing every ounce of emotion on their sleeves, celebrating to the max at every given opportunity, and then backing up their emotional playing style with wins, and a lot of them. Vitello was never shy to flip the emotional, fiery switch either, and heading into his debut season in the MLB, he has no real plans of changing things up.

"I would say about 80% of the guys I've come across, they're like college guys," Vitello told Jonathan Hutton and Chad Withrow on ‘Hot Mic.’ "And part of it is they're new. Some of them are new to the United States, some of them are new to the big leagues. And then Bryce Eldridge, who we recruited at Tennessee heavily, he's 21, he should be in college. So, I really feel like there's going to be a decent parallel there between how to coach those guys and how not.

"Now, if you got (Justin) Verlander was on the team last year, if Max Scherzer somehow ends up in our dugout, that's a different story. I think you've got to make some adjustments for sure."

It goes without saying that adrenaline could reach an all-time high for Vitello when he gets introduced as the Giants' manager for the first time on Opening Day. You add the fact that his club will start the regular season at home in San Francisco against the New York Yankees on Netflix; it doesn't get much better than that.

"You might as well start everything you know with a bang, you know," Vitello joked. "This is a group that felt like they underachieved a little bit last year. At the very least, they're hungry for more. So that opening day is going to symbolize a lot of things. We're fortunate to have it here. It's the only game of the day. And as you mentioned, Netflix, the one thing that I'm mentally walking on eggshells about is if it's Netflix.

"They're not going to want to just show the nine-inning game. So, hopefully guys like Aaron Judge and Willy Adames get more attention than a bad baseball player that's standing in the dugout."

Be sure to watch and listen to OutKick's ‘Hot Mic’ here. You can also catch up on the show at Apple Podcasts and Spotify.