Vitello seems up for being next Arkansas coach, but Tennessee has one major edge

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.

It's no secret that talk around the office vending machines across Arkansas have sometimes circled around to whether Razorbacks baseball coach Dave Van Horn will hang it up if he wins the national championship this season.

Even the oldest of Hogs fans can only remember two coaches Van Horn and his former boss Norm DeBriyn.

Since 1970, those are the only two coaches to lead the Razorbacks through the massive evolution that has been the Arkansas baseball program.

That's the vision of two men spreading over 55 seasons.

It's basically unheard of in the modern sports era, but eventually, someone else is going to have to step into the line of succession.

While there is some speculation that hitting coach Nate Thompson could be in line to take over the reins when Van Horn departs, , with an outside chance of pitching coach Matt Hobbs, the overwhelming fan favorite for quite some time has been Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello.

His final step in grooming himself to be a head coach came under Van Horn from 2014-17 before he left to take over a Tennessee program that had very little history of national prosperity in baseball.

It didn't take long for Vitello to take the lessons he gleaned from Van Horn to build his own powerful program and blow past the previous idea of what success is in Knoxville by winning a national championship over Texas A&M last season.

As successful as Vitello has been in Knoxville and as committed as the administration there has proven to be to him by making him the richest coach in all of college baseball, Vitello has made a poor effort of not making it look like he's at least mildly interested in the Arkansas job should it come open.

He stayed so long after the series ended hanging out and talking with the Arkansas coaching staff that he wondered out loud during his press conference whether he may have pushed it too far and upset his players.

"Hopefully, I didn't look bad in front of my team," Vitello said.

"I miss some of those guys.

I miss some of those guys.

They deserved to win.

We certainly would like to beat them.

I think maybe we play them next year.

Some of those guys said things they didn't have to say, and I think there's a mutual respect there." In addition, as he often does, Vitello took time to praise working at Arkansas as being a good job even though he wasn't specifically asked to comment on the quality of the position should it open.

It often comes off as if he's dropping breadcrumbs that he still greatly values the program and wouldn't shy away from thinking about being the third long-time coach in a row in Fayetteville.

"As you mentioned, I've got time here," Vitello said.

"While I was here, I was just as big of a knucklehead as I am now, but I tried to work my a** off.

It's a good place to work." However, there's one major issue that makes Thompson appear to be the safest bet of the three.

Vitello is making what once was considered football money.

He draws $3 million dollars, plus bonuses and expanded funds for his staff.

Even his buyout is quite hefty.

If Van Horn retires immediately after the College World Series and the coaching search drags out past July 1, then there's a real chance Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek is trying to scrap together the money to afford Vitello.

As it stands, it would cost the Razorbacks $4 million to hire him away because of contactual buyout considerations.

However, that number goes down to $3 million after July 1.

If Van Horn decides he has another year in him, then that price drops another million next summer before falling to $400,000 the following season.

Still, there's the need to top that $3 million in salary, the $200,000 national title bonus and the money spent on assistants.

Meanwhile, Van Horn signed a contract in 2021 after being named SEC Coach of the Year that raised his pay from less than a million to $1.25 million along with annual raises with incentives.

Based on those, it's estimated that Van Horn makes roughly $1.5 million per year now as a reward for making it to the College World Series in 2022.

While he is expected to get another $100,000 bump for making the College World Series this year, the $1.5 million he's currently pocketing pulls him even to what Vitello was making back in 2021, just a few years removed from being Van Horn's assistant, and literally half what the Vols coach makes now.

Of course, not every part of the discussion is a giant financial stop sign for Arkansas.

Between the Razorbacks and Volunteers, the Hogs have the program most likely to get all 34 scholarships fully funded by the athletics department as a part of the new court ruling affecting college sports.

Also, Arkansas is more likely to give a larger portion of the revenue sharing money to baseball than Tennessee simply because of the long history of success and fan support.

In 2023, Razorback baseball drew 371,000 paid tickets.

To put that in perspective, that's the equivalent of roughly 24 home men's basketball games based on the fact 15,000 people show up on average to watch the Hogs play on the hardwood.

Technically, those games are sold out, but everyone sees the rumps in seats easily reflects the 15,000 actual average on television.

It's hard to ignore that much support on behalf of baseball.

With that in mind, there's plenty for Vitello to consider beyond salary.

Also, Arkansas is one of the easiest places in all of baseball to recruit because of the history and facilities.

Tennessee is trying to catch up, but that's going to take time.

It could come down simply to whether Yurachek can raise the capital needed to pay the cost of Vitello.

There's no way that amount could be less than Vitello's current contract as that would be too much of an insult to Tennessee for him to follow through on leaving.

Still, there are a lot of dominoes to fall for any of this to matter.

It's just hard not to notice how prepared Vitello seems to be for when they do..

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