FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas assistant coach Tony Vitello interviewed, but was never offered the head coaching job at his alma mater Missouri, he said Friday.
Vitello said he interviewed for the job last month at a hotel in Kansas City. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported he was one of the favorites for the job before Missouri hired former Southeast Missouri State coach Steve Bieser to the position Thursday.
"Once I walked out of that (meeting) I knew I wasn't a viable candidate," Vitello said.
"I'd love to look like the most loyal Razorback of all-time and I say I turned them down, but I was never offered the job...and at no point was I ever all-in on saying yes if it was offered."
The Post-Dispatch reported that Vitello had the backing of several influential alumni at Missouri, including MLB All-Stars Max Scherzer and Ian Kinsler. Vitello, a St. Louis native, played three seasons at Missouri and was an assistant coach with the Tigers from 2003-10.
Vitello indicated that he didn't seek-out the position. He said he has aspirations to be a head coach one day, but isn't in a hurry.
"I've never been very active, never pumped out my resume," Vitello said. "If somebody comes to me with something I can't refuse, then I'd have to say yes. Until then, I'm focused on what I'm doing. I'm pretty damn happy at Arkansas. I know I get paid to say that, but it's different than the other two places I've worked at."
Vitello coached three seasons at TCU, helping assemble a team that has made the last three College World Series. He has coached at Arkansas since the 2014 season.
The 36-year-old is considered one of college baseball's top recruiters and helped assemble a recruiting class this year that was ranked the fourth-best nationally by Perfect Game USA before the MLB draft. The Razorbacks had seven signees drafted. Three have signed professionally and two more have yet to decide if they will go to college.
"I've never really been old enough to know what I'm doing in recruiting and then stuck around to coach the guys that I've worked on," Vitello said. "I left behind a lot of work at TCU and at Missouri there was really one group that I got to see through that I thought was really special like I think the '16 group can be at Arkansas. I'm looking forward to coaching this group that we've been working our butts off to get to campus."