Tony Vitello reveals how he broke the news of Giants job to Tennessee players, coaches

Tony Vitello made history by taking the San Francisco Giants job, being the first person to directly leave the college game to become a manager with no prior professional experience. Now the former Tennessee head coach, plenty of conversations took place for Vitello before accepting the job. None harder than with his players and coaching staff.

Turns out, there were multiple of those types of discussions. Mainly because news broke before a real decision had been made, initially leaving people in Knoxville stunned. But a few days later, when things were trending toward him leaving, Vitello seemingly got the nod of approval from people around the Tennessee program.

“It ended up being, instead of one conversation with the team and being like ‘This sucks’ and I’m crying and everything — it was a three-parter,” Vitello said via Bussin’ With The Boys. “It gave those guys to share their thoughts on it with me, including our coaching staff…

“I will forever be grateful the way those kids texted me, talked to me in person, and the way the coaches said ‘Do what you got to do.’ That really opened up the freedom to think, selfishly, just like ‘What do I want to do?’ As opposed to, ‘How is this going to impact other people?'”

Vitello admitted there was some frustration when the initial report broke. Tennessee and Josh Heupel were set to play Alabama later in Tuscaloosa, a game he planned to attend with a donor after a fall baseball scrimmage. However, he ultimately stayed at home to keep a more low-key profile due to the news.

Around four days later, the choice had officially been made. Vitello left Tennessee and the SEC in order to manage one of Major League Baseball’s most iconic franchises, the Giants. As mentioned, an unprecedented jump and certainly the type of move San Francisco’s Buster Posey would take a risk on.

There will be a later start than usual to the season for Vitello. Spring training games begin on Feb. 21 for San Francisco, going all the way until Opening Day on March 25 vs. the New York Yankees. Five days later, Vitello will get his first taste of NL West baseball with a trip to Petco Park.

If not for the conversations that took place, he still might be wearing a Tennessee hat. Fall ball is still ongoing for the Vols, now under the leadership of Josh Elander.