The biggest news on Rocky Top this week isn’t that the Tennessee Vols lost to the Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa last Saturday night.
Instead, the biggest news is the ongoing saga involving Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello and the San Francisco Giants.
The Giants are reportedly hoping to hire Vitello as their next manager. Vitello has never played or coached at the MLB level, but he reportedly has a good relationship with Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey.
Buster Posey has a unique connection to the Tennessee football program
Posey, who played college baseball at Florida State, has a unique connection to Tennessee’s football program.
The future Hall of Famer (Posey will be on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 2027) is the brother-in-law of Vols offensive analyst Cayden Cochran (Cochran is married to Posey’s sister, Samantha).
Cochran, who was hired by Tennessee in early 2024 to work with the tight ends, played at Oklahoma for a year before transferring to Southern Mississippi.
During his time at Oklahoma, Cochran played under current Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel.
Cochran, who grew up in Oklahoma, said in 2023 that he grew up idolizing Heupel.
“He’s awesome, he’s absolutely awesome,” said Cochran about Heupel on the Creative Native Podcast in 2023. “So it’s funny, you know, Heupel was the quarterback at Oklahoma in 2000 when they won the national championship, right? So I’m 10 years old. He’s left handed. I’m left handed. I’m gonna grow up and I’m gonna be Josh Heupel. That’s who I want to be. He’s my hero, right? Well, it’s a little bit different when you start playing for the guy. I’m at Oklahoma, fast forward to 2011, and now he’s my coach. I mean, he’s hard on us. He’s holding everybody to the standard of what Oklahoma should be held to. And man, if you don’t bring it that day, he’s gonna let you know about it. And so it was just funny the dynamic of like, ‘oh my gosh, like, this is literally my hero’ to where, you know, he’s giving me negative points for not finishing through the line or he doesn’t think my effort’s there on a certain drill. And so he’s kind of getting into me.”
The connection between Posey and Tennessee’s football program, amid the Giants’ interest in Vitello, seems completely coincidental. But it’s still interesting, nonetheless.
