CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The press conference moderator ended Tennessee baseball’s press conference with a standard end of season courtesy.
“Congratulations on a successful season.”
The elephant in the room was the inaccuracy of the statement. It was not a successful season for a Tennessee program that has become one of the nation’s best.
Tennessee failed to win 40 games for the first time in a full season since 2018. The Vols failed to make the super regionals for the first time since 2019. They went 0-2 in a regional for the first time in program history after falling to ECU 7-3 in 14 innings on Friday and VCU 5-4 on Saturday.
It wasn’t a disastrous season. The Vols showed resolve by overcoming a poor start to SEC play against the easier part of the schedule and made it back to the NCAA Tournament— something that was far from a certainty a month ago.
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But make no bones about it, Tennessee did not have a successful season. Josh Elander fairly did not want to provide a detailed assessment of his first season in front of two players just moments after the season ended. However, Elander made comments that make it clear that he knows it was not a successful season.
“It’s been a crazy year for us, and (I) love how they stayed in it,” Elander said of his team. “But I think the game has told us we need to make some adjustments. We’ll make those in the offseason. Excited to continue to get better.”
Or this comment later in the press conference:
“We’ve been very fortunate to win a lot of regionals in a row. That’s now come to an end, so I think we need to look at everything holistically and just try to get better. That needs to be a theme.”
How much Elander is to blame for the shortcomings is hard to say. He inherited a set roster, with some serious flaws, when he became head coach. Not being able to lean on a veteran pitching coach like Frank Anderson made the challenge greater.
There’s no doubt that Elander made mistakes managing Tennessee’s bullpen this season. But that is to be expected in his first season as a head coach. The improved hitting and late season success was a plus for Elander though the poor showing in Chapel Hill dims the positivity.
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Now Tennessee enters a unique and highly important offseason. Rarely does a head coach go through his first season in the role before his first offseason. Taking over as head coach late in fall practice, that is essentially the case for Elander.
The first-year head coach played a pivotal role in recruiting the players on Tennessee’s roster. But Tony Vitello was also a major part in players signing and enrolling at Tennessee. How many and which Vol players enter the transfer portal over the next month will be interesting.
How attractive of a destination will Tennessee be for top transfers? The Vols have cleaned up in the portal over the last few years. Will they continue to do so without Vitello as head coach?
The uncertainty exiting the season makes for a fascinating offseason. With an underwhelming but not disastrous first season, Elander needs a strong offseason to position Tennessee for a deeper run next postseason.
