University of Tennessee Men's Baseball

THE ELANDER FILE Personal Information Hometown: Round Rock, Texas College: TCU, 2016 Coaching Experience 2016: TCU, Student Assistant 2017: Arkansas, Volunte...

Richard Jackson joined Tennessee's staff as a student assistant pitching coach in the fall of 2019 and was promoted to volunteer assistant coach in June of 2021. In his role of volunteer assistant, Jackson will also be charged with coordinating and running Tennessee year round baseball camps. As a student assistant coach in 2020 and 2021, Jackson worked closely with pitching coach [Frank Anderson](https://utsports.com/coaches.aspxrc=2955) to develop one of the country's top pitching staffs. In 2021, Tennessee's pitching staff ranked in the top 10 nationally in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2nd  3.63), walks allowed/nine innings (3rd  2.49), WHIP (5th  1.16) and ERA (10th  3.51) as the Big Orange won 50 games for just the third time in program history and advanced to the College World Series for the first time since 2005. During the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the Vols ranked among the top 25 in the nation in a handful of statistical categories, including: WHIP (0.94 - second), ERA (2.00 - fourth), hits allowed/nine innings (6.41 - 16th), shutouts (three - 12th), strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.89 - third) and walks allowed/nine innings (2.06 - third). Prior to joining Vitello's staff as a student assistant, Jackson was a pitcher for the Vols from 2015-19. Under the guidance of Anderson, Jackson completely changed his delivery prior to the 2019 season and had a breakout campaign in which he helped lead the Big Orange to the NCAA regionals for the first time since 2005. The Atlanta native went 1-0 and posted careers bests in ERA (1.40), appearances (21), innings pitched (19.1) and strikeouts (21) while holding opponents to a .119 batting average. In his final outing with UT, Jackson threw 3.1 scoreless innings of relief, allowing just one hit while tying a career high with four strikeouts against No. 14 North Carolina in the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional

Following an impressive playing career at Tennessee, Kirby Connell joined the Volunteers’ staff as an analyst for the 2025 season before moving into a new ro...