Sports
Sources: Vols’ Vitello favorite to land Giants job
University of Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello has emerged as a front-runner for the San Francisco Giants’ managerial job, and a resolution on a potential deal is expected in the next 24 to 72 hours, sources told ESPN on Saturday, confirming multiple reports.
Should the sides agree on a contract, Vitello would become the first manager in major league history to jump directly from a college program to the big leagues without experience in a professional organization.
Vitello, 47, led Tennessee to a College World Series title in 2024 and is regarded as one of the best coaches in college baseball. He would replace Bob Melvin, who was fired Sept. 29 after an 81-81 season, the Giants’ fourth consecutive season without a playoff berth.
San Francisco president of baseball operations Buster Posey has considered several managerial candidates, among them former Giants catcher Nick Hundley and a pair of other former big league catchers, Kurt Suzuki and Vance Wilson. The Giants have instead trained their interest on Vitello, who has distinguished himself as one of the preeminent recruiters and talent developers in the country during a two-decade career as an assistant and head coach in college.
The buyout on his deal at Tennessee is $3 million, the same as his annual salary, sources said.
The move from college to professional baseball is rare, though not unprecedented. Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy spent 25 years coaching in college before joining the San Diego Padres, with whom he managed in the minor leagues. Murphy then spent eight years as the Brewers’ bench coach before taking over as manager in 2024, when he was named National League Manager of the Year.
Vitello’s transition to the major leagues would come at a far more rapid pace. He would inherit a Giants team competing in a loaded National League West, with the division-winning Los Angeles Dodgers clinching a World Series berth Friday night. San Francisco returns a core of first baseman Rafael Devers, shortstop Willy Adames and third baseman Matt Chapman, and is expected to be active in free agency this winter, sources said.
After more than 10 years as an assistant coach at Missouri, TCU and Arkansas, Vitello took over a moribund Tennessee program before the 2018 season and posted a 341-131 record, advancing to the College World Series in 2021, 2023 and 2024. With a pair of eventual first-round picks and four second-rounders, Tennessee beat Texas A&M to win the school’s first baseball national championship in 2024.
Vitello, whose boisterous personality endeared him at Tennessee and chafed other SEC schools, would enter a different realm in MLB. Whereas college jobs are often defined by the success of recruiting classes, major league teams are constructed by baseball operations departments, with the manager relied upon for clubhouse cohesion, in-game decision-making, bullpen usage and daily media interactions.
The reluctance of MLB teams to dip into the college ranks for managers is long established and has run counter to the hiring practices of other professional sports leagues. NFL teams have regularly plucked head coaches from the college ranks, and in the NBA, there is no stigma associated with college coaches. The closest facsimile to Vitello’s hiring was in 2019, when pitching coach Wes Johnson left the University of Arkansas to take the same role with the Minnesota Twins. Johnson left the Twins in 2022 to accept the pitching coach job at LSU before joining Georgia as its head coach a year later.
Vitello’s philosophies on the game and personality intrigued Posey and aligned with what the future Hall of Famer hopes to build in San Francisco, sources said. In an interview with ESPN in June, Vitello said his reputation as a rabble-rouser did not bother him and that he had no plans to change his approach to coaching, which called for boundary-pushing.
“I think you don’t know where the line is until you cross it. And then you make an adjustment,” Vitello said. “I don’t want our guys, if they give them a coloring book, I don’t want them just coloring inside the lines. You know, come up with something different.”
One year after a winter storm forced postponements across U.S. sports, another major weather system is prompting a reshuffling of games this week and threatened to wreak havoc on the weekend schedule.
A storm that meteorologists say could rival the damage of a major hurricane is expected to bring snow, ice and frigid temperatures from New Mexico to New England starting Friday.
The Sun Belt Conference preemptively shook up its women’s basketball schedule, moving around the start times on several games from Thursday through Saturday.
Tennessee’s swim meet at Georgia and the USC Upstate women’s basketball game at Longwood were moved up to Friday from Saturday because of the forecast.
Arizona State‘s on-court threads will look a bit different, courtesy of a program icon.
The Sun Devils unveiled a new uniform on Tuesday that blends elements from James Harden‘s time at Arizona State with his signature shoe deal.
On a black base, “Arizona State” appears in a blocky font in maroon and outlined with gold, with the jersey number sandwiched by the school’s name.
A legacy never leaves 🔱
Introducing the James Harden X ASU collection.
Available now: https://t.co/BbmKQRflzJ pic.twitter.com/Si7ra1CuJe— Arizona State Sun Devils (@TheSunDevils) January 20, 2026
Arizona State’s “Sparky” mascot logo is featured on two locations — under the front collar of the jersey and on the sides of the shorts.
On the jersey’s maroon back collar is a cream-colored patch with No. 13 — Harden’s jersey number as a Sun Devil — in gold, a nod to the LA Clippers guard’s two seasons with the program.
Similar to Louisville‘s Donovan Mitchell uniform and Texas Tech football’s Patrick Mahomes threads, Arizona State will feature Harden’s signature logo — in this case on the right side of the jersey’s collar and the bottom left of the shorts.
Harden, a 16-season NBA veteran, played for the Sun Devils from 2007 to 2009 before being selected as the No. 3 pick in the 2009 NBA draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder. He averaged 19 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.9 steals per game as a Sun Devil, leading the team to a 2009 NCAA tournament berth.
The Clippers guard first signed a 13-year deal with Adidas in August 2015, after Nike failed to match the shoe company’s $200 million offer.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) reiterated its position against touring India for the T20 World Cup on Wednesday, following the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) rejection of its request to shift the side’s matches out of the country.
Bangladesh have refused to play their matches in India, citing concerns regarding players’ safety, and demanded to play their games in Sri Lanka, which is co-hosting the tournament alongside India.
Following the ICC’s rejection of the request, BCB president Aminul Islam said that he sought more time from the cricket-governing body to talk to his government “for one last time”.
“They [ICC] said it’s a valid point, and gave me 24 or 48 hours to get back to them. I don’t want to put pressure on the government. We know that India is not secure for us. We remain in the stance that we want to play in Sri Lanka,” he added.
Acknowledging the ICC’s decision to keep the tournament’s schedule unchanged, Islam said he would consult the government and convey its feedback to the ICC.
“I am hoping for a miracle from the ICC,” he said, adding that players and the government wanted Bangladesh to play the World Cup.
“But we don’t think India is safe for our players. A government doesn’t only consider the players, but they consider all, when it takes a decision,” the BCB president added.
The ICC announced its decision on Bangladesh’s request after a board meeting earlier in the day.
“The decision was taken after considering all security assessments conducted, including independent reviews, all of which indicated there was no threat to Bangladesh players, media persons, officials and fans at any of the tournament venues in India,” the ICC said in its statement.
The cricket-governing body maintained that it was “not feasible to make changes” so close to the tournament.
Further, the ICC stated that altering the schedule under the circumstances, in the absence of any credible security threat, could set a precedent that would jeopardise the sanctity of future ICC events.
As per the schedule, Bangladesh are drawn in Group C and scheduled to play their first three group matches in Kolkata — against West Indies on February 7, Italy on February 9 and England on February 14 — before concluding their group stage against Nepal in Mumbai on February 17.
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