The first name other than Josh Elander has emerged in the Tennessee baseball coaching search. Danny White will reportedly interview Kevin Schnall for the opening, fresh off of his appearance in the College
World Series with Coastal Carolina.
Mike Wilson reported the news this afternoon.
Schnell, who was named the head coach of Coastal Carolina just last season, went 56-13 last season. The 48-year-old had previously been the associate head coach there since 2016. Schnell was a catcher at Coastal Carolina from 1995-1999.
Coastal Carolina made the finals of the College World Series last season, but dropped both games to LSU.
Danny White has promised a national search to replace Tony Vitello, who left to take the San Fransisco Giants manager gig this week. Most in the program have voiced their opinion in favor of Josh Elander to take over the program.
“I’m asking, Josh Elander to be a candidate,” White said this week. “And we are going to conduct a national search and expect a ton of interest because of what Tony and his staff and our fan base and everyone has built here. I think it’s an extremely attractive position. Obviously a little bit unique time of year. I’m going to work as fast as I can to get through this process and eliminate the uncertainty that our players are feeling right now as quickly as possible. We have a lot of talent here and I expect to have an extremely competitive baseball team this spring.”
Vitello went 341-131 in eight seasons at Tennessee. The program has completely changed during that time, coming off of a National Championship run in 2024. Tennessee has now renovated Lindsey Nelson Stadium, and the job is now clearly viewed differently than it was back when the Volunteers took a chance on Vitello.
The question now becomes this — does Danny want his guy or does he keep it in house with Elander?
