The flood gates are open for a Tennessee baseball dynasty

After Tennessee football won the Gator Bowl in the opening days of 2020, head coach Jeremy Pruitt made a remark that has become ironically true.

"What did I tell you? This decade is going to be the decade of the Vols," Pruitt said when addressing the team.

Since then, things have skyrocketed for the athletic department, despite Pruitt being let go in a messy divorce from Tennessee after the following 2020 campaign.

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The football team has rebounded under Josh Heupel already winning a New Year's Six bowl, men's basketball is coming off an Elite Eight run with Rick Barnes, women's basketball has turned the keys to a promising new head coach in Kim Caldwell and softball is churning out SEC titles under Karen Weekly.

Now, Tennessee adds another National Championship to the trophy case. Tony Vitello has rebuilt the baseball program into a juggernaut and is already over the hump that many great programs never have been able to climb.

The Vols' 2024 team that won the SEC regular season and tournament titles before hoisting the national title in Omaha goes down as one of — if not the best — teams in the sport's history. They're the first squad since Miami in 1999 to earn the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and end up as the last team standing.

While this is the first championship in school history, this level of success isn't necessarily new under Vitello. He's led the program to the College World Series in three of the previous four seasons, something no other program has matched.

In the lone year during that stretch he didn't reach Omaha, Vitello's squad looked unstoppable while claiming the SEC regular season and tournament titles with little resistance. Tennessee was also the No. 1 overall seed that year before Notre Dame caught them at home in the super regional.

With plenty of experience as the best team in the country and a giant bullseye on their back, the Vols are poised to be a threat for the foreseeable future, as well. With a championship under their belt, things funnily enough may even get easier from here.

To start a dynasty, you need to win the first of what ends up being many titles. When the first domino falls, it can cause a chain reaction that sets up even more in the future.

Look to college football as a recent example. Georgia was ridiculed for a national championship drought that dated back to 1980 before winning it all in 2021. After getting close in past years, the Bulldogs got over the hump and repeated as champions the very next season. They were considered favorites the year after and seem to be going nowhere in that position going forward.

There's no reason Tennessee baseball doesn't follow the same formula for success. The first is out of the way and the tools and pieces are there to keep the run going.

Vitello is just 45 years old and in the first head coaching job of his career. There seems to be no plan of leaving and the university is rallying behind his success. Massive renovations are being done to the facilities and Lindsey Nelson Stadium and a contract extension and raise is almost certainly in the works.

This isn't an older coach finally getting to the promised land right before his career ends. It's a young and hungry coach finishing the job early in his career.

With a fiery personality that's endearing to the fanbase and players, top talent from across the country has flocked to him. The championship roster is made up of players from coast-to-coast with additions coming out of the prep level and the transfer portal.

Heading into next season, the Vols hold the No. 1 recruiting class in the country via PerfectGame.com. The year after, Tennessee is already at No. 3. The year after that, its at No. 2.

This follows the model that's been set in place by previous dynasties across college sports. You don't rebuild, you reload.

With Vitello at the helm and talented rosters not going anywhere, its almost hard to imagine this isn't the first of many national titles for the Vols.

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