Tennessee baseball will have a new head coach this season. With Tony Vitello leaving for the MLB’s San Francisco Giants, Josh Elander was promoted to full-time head coach in his replacement. On Thursday, his appearance on ‘The Mike Keith Show‘ was aired.
Elander was asked about changes he’ll make, his wife and kids, his journey to this point and more.
Here’s what he said.
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On what’s been different about being the associate head coach to head coach
“It’s been a whirlwind, there’s no doubt. I think the coolest thing is I got a text from Peyton Manning. That was a win right there. I just thing in change, we’re just trying to keep it as simple as possible moving forward. The same of what we’re looking for. I’ll know we’ll have to evolve over the course of this fall and the next spring, but just making sure to take care of the current staff, current team and recruits, that’s entirely where our focus has been the last few days.”
On people getting to know him as the face of the program
“I’m just looking forward to it, honestly. I think as a recruiting coordinator and associate head coach, you kind of have the role where you can just put your nose down and get to work. You can almost live on an island at times whether it’s on the phone late at night or on the road with recruits. Then you get back and you’re where we all get into it, between the lines to have fun. I just want to do what Tony took a chance on me to do, the best job I could to make sure we had the talent to compete in this league. That’s entirely where my focus was. I’m excited to do stuff like this and get to know Vol Nation at an ever deeper level.”
On if his goal was to be a college head coach
“100%. I think, honestly, the conversation started when I was a player. Jim Schlossnagle who’s now at Texas, he was like, hey what do you want to do when you’re done playing? Everybody says we’re going to play in the big leagues for 20 years. That has to be the mindset, but I wanted to coach. I remember my dad, we grew up in Austin, Texas, Major Applewhite was the quarterback down there. He showed me an article about Major Applewhite where even as a player, he was preparing to be a coach. Whether it was saving some offensive stuff or whatever. Credit my dad, I have practice plans from all the way back when I was a player in college just to go back and lean on. I’ve always had the vision of being a coach. I’m very thankful it’s here at Tennessee. To be honest, I never thought that’d be a part of the equation. But I’m so grateful and I’ve been preparing for this for a long time. I think the cool level is the relationships we have with the current players, there shouldn’t be any of that weirdness period where we’re feeling each other out. We’re always talking about being comfortable in your own skin, doing things the right way, so I think the culture just rolls and let’s play some ball.”
On if his dad is his biggest baseball influence
“I think so. He was the best man at my wedding. He has always been there for me. He’s a guy when you have a problem, call him, he knows the answer. Just a steady, stoic man, but with unconditional love. That definitely has rubbed off on me and my coaching style. But he’s the best man in more than one way.”
On his dad’s influence being the biggest influence on his recruiting success
“I just think work hard, treat people right. That’s how I’ve tried to live my life. We joke in professional baseball, people say hey we get big leagued. Hey, I’m in the big leagues and you’re not. I don’t think that’s the right way to treat people. That’s how I’ve tried to live my life on a daily basis. On the recruiting side, let’s try to be authentic and real. Let’s find a match. What are your expectations? Do you want to win? How do we get there together? And then working through that with families where there’s an ultimate level of trust. That’s the only thing that we’re looking for. Also, we’re ready to put in the work. That has to be and will continue to be a main-staple of what we do on the development side.”
On what he had to get across to Danny White to prove he can be head coach
“I think just having never been a head coach before, that’s something we talked about, what’s your vision for the program? Little things like discipline and communication. I’ve taken pride on the recruiting side. Again, to recruit the best players, you got to have great relationships with people all over the country. You can’t do it by yourself. That was my main message. We’re gonna lean on you guys, I want to be a team, make decisions together in the best interest of not just the baseball program but the university as a whole. Then just wanted to be myself. Didn’t want to act like I had it all figured out. I tried to be vulnerable and real. I’m just so thankful that he trusted me to give me this opportunity.”
On why the Tennessee brand in baseball has resonated nationally
“I think the players, like we’ve always told them, let them be themselves. That doesn’t mean flipping bats or doing crazy things, it’s very hard to get between the lines and wear that Power T. There’s a lot that goes into earning that. That’s never going to change. I think the authenticity of guys being themselves, not being robots, having the freedom to fail, having the freedom to have success, and the freedom to be aggressive. I think our style of play, I think it really, if you look in the SEC how hard weekend games are, the way we prepare, the family aspect and how we go about it, I think it helps us in those tough games where maybe it is a little easier to give in in the third inning when you’re down 5-1. The people in the building are really and willing to go fight for each other and I think people resonate that and see that and that’s something they want to be a part of.”
On the fine line of going from good to great in the SEC, how to stay elite
“No. 1 is recruiting. Recruiting, preparation, competition. Those are the three things. We got to recruit coast-to-coast, find the right guys. I think with the new roster changes and it’s condensing, it’s something I’m excited about. I think you can be more targeted, whether that’s make-up or relationships, who are the right guys. And then preparation, I think that’s why we all get into coaching. We love throwing the BP, hitting the Fungo, holding the guys accountable. And then the competition, if you don’t like competition, you should never step foot anywhere near an SEC playing field at any sport because that’s what you sign up for. It’s the best vs. the best, the best resources, the best players and let’s figure out what’s what. That’s one thing we’ll continue to try to hunt down on the recruiting side is guys who want all the smoke and when all the chips are on the line, they want the ball in their hands and they want to be in the box.”
On if there will be changes from Tony Vitello to Josh Elander in baseball philosophy
“That’s a great question. When we started this at the beginning, we always talked about pitching with Frank Anderson, making sure our guys throw strikes and we play great defense. We’ll figure out the offensive side. Now that the program has evolved and the type of recruit we’re able to attract, our expectation is to be dynamic in all areas. With this current roster, there’s incredible versatility with the position player group, we got left-handed hitters, right-handed hitters, guys that can play on the dirt, guys that can play behind the plate and in the corners. So it’s about just getting guys in the right spot. But as far as some holistic change? No, not at all. Because this is about the players that are in the building right now and then recruiting the best to take their place when those guys sign like the guys have before.”
On Tennessee’s offense doing well
“I think we have to evolve a little bit this year based on your personnel. I think everybody loves home runs and we’ve hit a bazillion of them now, but we never talk about hitting home runs. We talk about taking good swings, getting to the bottom of the ball, having conviction when the guys are in the box and allowing them the freedom to take shots when it’s appropriate. But also the discipline to drive in runs when the guys are giving us a position where, hey, we can take this easy RBI right here. The offense, again, I will still run the offense from third base. Nothing is going to change there. It’s been like that for nine years. We’re going to give our freedom for guys to push the line of aggressive vs. reckless. What is that line? That’s what we talk about in the fall. Where do we get to the point where we’re not giving away outs on the bases but we want guys to know we’re putting pressure on them, too. We do have a lot of guys who can leave the yard, good athletes. I’m just excited to see kind of who wins the job. We always say, the players write the lineup at the end of the day. It’ll be pretty competitive with this group and I’m excited.”
On his pitching philosophy
“Throw strikes, period. Throw strikes, play good defense. On the pitching side, I really love the analytics side on pitching. I use it a ton when I’m on the recruiting trail. Just getting a good objective look at not only what we see and blending that with what the data is telling you. It helps you make better decisions, but also helps you understand how evaluators on the pro side are looking at pitchers. We just want guys that want to compete, throw strikes, trust their defense behind them. Again, doesn’t have to be we have to have X amount of power guys, it just needs to be balanced. People know their role, accept their role and want to improve their role at all times. That’s what we’re looking for on the pitcher side.”
On managing the staff
“Right now, we’re trying to keep everything similar to what it was last year. Some of that is fluid. Frank is the best of what he does. Best pitching coach in college baseball, his resume is non-debatable on that. Q, again, is the biggest x-factor in all of college baseball in what he can do… Strength and conditioning. Q and I met with I was 21 years old in low-A with the Braves. Best guy I’ve ever been around. Truly is family to me. Let people who are good at their jobs do what they do. I have no interest in making sure my stamp has to be put on something or not trusting guys to do their jobs. I’ve been around great coaches and what the great ones do is you hire somebody to do their job and you let them do their job and you have trust. Right now is balancing all of this stuff which is new. Yesterday, I got to throw BP for like 25 minutes and it was like Christmas morning. For a second it was a sense of normalcy. I’m excited for all this stuff, but I love being between the line with the guys and I know our staff does, too.”
On how his wife’s life has changed
“She’s the boss. She’s been my greatest teammate. When I’m on the road recruiting, she books all my flights and travel and all that stuff. We’ve just been in this together. We never talked about me personally becoming a head coach, it was we together. I’m going to integrate my family into this program like crazy. We have and Coach V allowed that, which I’m forever grateful for. My daughter can run through the facility, go crazy, I know the guys are going to take care of her and treat her right. I know four or five days ago one of them was making her a taco post practice. I just want them around because I want people to understand baseball is competitive and everything that goes into it but family is priceless. I want that to continue to be a big staple of our program. Whether it be Q’s daughter, Ross’ daughters, I want families around as much as possible.”
On what’s next
“I think the process looks like let’s finish the fall. I know we’re really excited. Next week, we’re working on playing at Smokey’s park, Randy Boyd’s place. We’re going to try to play under the lights because we’ve been limited with construction. Again, just keep getting better each day. As we get to the end of the fall period, it’s one of my favorite times of the year. We can pull guys into small groups or Frank can take guys and work on pitch design things or some individualized pieces or hand them off to Q and get them strong and ready for the 56-game challenge coming up. That’s what we look forward to. We’re also big on communication and evals. Making sure the players know where they stand based on how we see them on the pole position, but how their peers see them, as well. We have a great process to get through that. Now, looking ahead, the rules have changed and we get to bring them back earlier in January than we ever have before. I’m really excited about that. It’s just like spring training, it’s one of the most dangerous times of the year for pitchers if they don’t handle the throwing program the right way and the ramp up. To be around Woody, our trainer, and Q and Beth, so many people that go into keeping our guys healthy and the resources we have at Tennessee.”
