Family rivals: Tennessee hires Tino Sunseri, son of Florida assistant Sal Sunseri

The Sunseri family will be divided every September for the foreseeable future.

Tino Sunseri, son of Florida assistant coach Sal Sunseri, announced Saturday via his Twitter he’s heading to Tennessee.

The common link between the Sunseris and Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt is Florida State. Sal Sunseri and Pruitt were both on FSU’s staff in 2013 when the Seminoles won the BCS Championship. The older Sunseri coached defensive ends while Pruitt was the defensive coordinator.

In 2016, Tino Sunseri, a former quarterback at Pittsburgh, was hired as a quality control assistant at FSU. According to his Twitter bio, the younger Sunseri will also be a quality control assistant working with the quarterbacks at UT.

Sal Sunseri, last with the Oakland Raiders as linebackers coach, was recently named to the on-field staff at Florida. He was Tennessee’s defensive coordinator in 2012.

Just first and foremost want to thank Coach Fisher for giving me a opportunity at Florida state. The relationships I have built there will be ever lasting. But I am proud to announce I’ll be joining Coach Pruitt’s Staff at Tennessee! Let’s get to work! pic.twitter.com/uZrAJw1DjV

— Tino Sunseri (@CoachTSunseri) January 7, 2018

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.