Tony Vitello jokes he will not call Tennessee media rat poison: ‘They do that in other states’

Unlike another notable and highly successful former SEC head football coach, Tony Vitello isn’t worried about “rat poison.”

During his first press conference of the 2025 season on Wednesday, the Tennessee baseball coach made it clear he has no issue discussing his team’s sky-high potential a year after winning the program’s first NCAA National Championship last season.

When discussing how talented sophomore Dean Curley has handled approaching his second season in Knoxville, Vitello took the opportunity to crack a joke at the expense of the local media — as well as former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban — while also acknowledging how easily players can become distracted by external factors that have nothing to do with the game of baseball.

“It’s just all the externalities, um, it’s you guys. I like you so I won’t call you rat poison or anything evil like that — they do that in other states,” Vitello deadpanned. “But there are externalities there with social media and other fans knowing what you did or what you eat or what your girlfriend’s name is or any of that stuff. And a lot of it at the end of the day doesn’t have anything to do with the job you’re trying to do between the lines. And Dean was able to do that as a freshman, and I don’t see why he wouldn’t be able to do it this year.”

Former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban famously coined the term “rat poison” to describe any perceived positive press that could distract his Crimson Tide players from their mission at hand, especially if it helped to inflate the egos of the litany of former four- and five-star players that regularly littered Alabama’s roster year-in and year-out.

This report will be updated.

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