KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) – VFL Peyton Manning and Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello talked a little ‘Omaha’ ahead of the Vols’ first trip the College World Series since 2005.
Tennessee is just days away from traveling to Nebraska for the College World Series. The quest for their first-ever baseball national championship will begin Sunday, June 20 at 2 p.m. EST against Virginia.
In a viral video posted to the team’s social media pages, the soon-to-be NFL Hall of Famer and Tennessee superfan wished the Vols good luck in the tournament while training Vitello on the proper pronunciation of the word that became synonymous with ‘The Sheriff’ throughout his 18 seasons in the NFL.
“Coach, one more time. It’s kind of three syllables. It’s rhythmic. Right from the diaphragm:
O-MA-HA!”
Peyton Manning in video with Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello
Near the end of the video, Manning dons a Tennessee cap and jokes to Vitello he’ll be ready to pitch for the Vols if they need him. “Listen, if you need me, I’ll be ready. I’ll have my arm loose for you,” Manning said.
In addition to being one one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Manning was well-known for directing his offense before the snap with a litany of code words and phrases. None was more notorious than ‘Omaha,” which signaled a quick change of the play call as the clock ran down.
The use of ‘Omaha’ became so frequent that Manning told the crowd at the Adobe Summit in 2017 that people actually offered him money to use a different word. He even received a key to the city of Omaha at a charity event in 2014.
The word clearly hasn’t gotten old for Manning, who launched a media company called ‘Omaha Productions’ earlier this year.
Vitello and Tennessee became one of eight College World Series team with a win over the LSU Tigers in the Super Regionals. The winner of the bracket consisting of Tennessee, Virginia, Texas and Mississippi State will play the winner of the bracket consisting of Stanford, NC State, Vanderbilt and Arizona in the CWS Finals. Click here for a look at the College World Series bracket.
The College World Series Finals will begin Monday, June 28 at 7 p.m. The two finalists will face-off in a best-of-3 series with the decisive third match to be held on Wednesday, June 30, if necessary.
