Most aren't "supporting " it but see it for what it was. A coach who used it to grandstand for his own gain. Give me a break. With everything that goes on in major college sports this is what everyone wants to clutch their pearls over.... Im all about being better than some of those other lowlife programs we complain about but this was blown out of proportion and the entire context isn't even known yet. Ymmv
I just saw the video (no audio with it - other than the Boot scootin Boogie) where Sully is giving it to the grounds crew. I’d have more of a problem with that one than anything. Looked uncalled for in my opinion and out of line.
From the Sentinel sports page GAINESVILLE — Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s frustration boiled over and led to an obscenity-laced tirade caught on video before his team’s season ended abruptly at an NCAA baseball regional over the weekend. Prior to the Gators’ 11-4 season-ending loss to East Carolina University on Sunday, O’Sullivan berated a staff member on site for the Conway Regional hosted by Coastal Carolina while someone recorded the incident and later posted it on social media. In a post on the X account of Pirate Radio, 92.7 Greenville The Voice of The Pirate Nation, O’Sullivan is shown on video using more than a dozen expletives in the span of 47 seconds. At one point, the longtime Gators coach tells the official, “I’m sorry. I appreciate you, but this is (expletive expletive)!'” On Monday, UF athletic director Scott Stricklin and O’Sullivan released statements about the incident. Stricklin said the 56-year-old coach’s behavior “fell well short of expectations of how Gators treat people.” O’Sullivan said, “I let my emotions get the best of me and channeled my energy in a way I should not have.” At issue was UF’s elimination game with ECU moving from noon to 1 p.m. because the Pirates’ loss Saturday to Coastal Carolina did not end until close to midnight. O’Sullivan’s outburst wasn’t his only one of the day. Another video without sound and filmed near the Gators’ dugout showed him repeatedly pointing a finger aggressively and menacingly at the chest and near the chin of another official, who stood with his hands in his pockets while O’Sullivan ranted. The UF coach’s behavior generated blowback from Coastal Carolina coach Kevin Schnall, who said O’Sullivan had castigated an associate AD and the school’s field crew. “What transpired this morning on our field, another coach disrespected our associate AD, who works as hard as anybody in our entire program. He disrespected our field crew, who are the salt of the earth,” Schnall said. “These guys would do anything for our program. It’s not OK. And this needs to be brought up. Absolutely disrespectful … absolutely unacceptable. “This is a national champion coach who thinks he can come in here and try to bully people around. Disappointed. Somebody that a lot of coaches look up to.” Parker Byrd, an ECU sophomore reserve infielder, appeared on Pirates Radio Live on Monday and said O’Sullivan told him to shove a white board up his rear end after Byrd encountered the coach following the incidents with officials. “I’m like, ‘Morning, Coach, how you doing?’ Because I mean I heard about all the stuff that happened and I was trying not to picture him as a bad dude,” Byrd told the interviewers, according to On3.sports. “It was a bad situation; maybe not his fault. Then I turned the corner, I saw him, I said that. “He’s like, ‘Eff you, you can stick that white board up your effing [expletive].’ And I’m like, ‘Holy!’ My reaction was, ‘Are you serious?’ and I was laughing because I was so caught off guard.” Byrd said teammates Nick Parham and Braden Burress were with him, “looking at [O’Sullivan] like he’s crazy.” Byrd continued, “He’s like, ‘Yeah, eff you. You m-effers better be ready to play today.’ I was like, ‘We’re ready to play.’ And he was like, ‘Good, you m-effer.’” Byrd said coach Cliff Godwin got involved and kind of told him to shut up basically. “But it was wild,” Byrd said. In his statement, O’Sullivan offered a mea culpa. “I want to sincerely apologize for my actions and behavior to the entire NCAA Regional field, the NCAA — including site representatives Rick French and Mark Scalf — as well as all of Gator Nation,” he said. “I did not represent the University of Florida to the appropriate standard.” Known for his fiery demeanor and his long record of success, O’Sullivan has coached Florida to 17 straight NCAA tourney appearances, highlighted by the Gators’ 2017 national title. In 2025, the 56-year-old ushered the Gators through an injury-riddled season to win 15 of 20 games entering this past weekend. UF (39-22) was the No. 2 seed in the regional and appeared to have an opportunity to advance. Instead, the Gators allowed 22 runs to ECU (35-26) during a pair of lopsided losses and exited the NCAA tourney without getting to the Super Regional for the third time since 2021. Asked about the incident during postgame interviews, O’Sullivan said, “I handled it properly at the end of the game.” On Monday, he and Stricklin took it a step further. “One of our department’s core values is respect, and Coach O’Sullivan’s unacceptable actions failed to demonstrate that,” Stricklin said. “On behalf of Florida Athletics, I want to personally apologize to everyone impacted.” O’Sullivan concluded, “I appreciate all of the tireless efforts on behalf of Coastal Carolina, their Tournament Director Bryan Stiles, and the NCAA, and am sorry for allowing this instance to get in the way of an otherwise great weekend of postseason baseball.”
Schnall wears as many NC rings for CC as Sully does for UF even though Schnall’s was not won as a head coach. I think Schnall’s rant was an attempt to put himself on Sully’s level as a coach…or at least knock Sully down a notch to Schnall’s level. Unfortunately, the good guys being manhandled probably edified Schnall’s bravado to do so in a 100%public rant. Sully might have deserved to be called out but it could have been in one sentence and not a repetitive shopping list rant. I am disappointed in how our season ended, and in how Sully handled himself in this episode. One step back, now let’s take two steps forward. Go Gators.
On a different site, but the take isn't that bad (or should I say not a bad take and not the implications): I realize Stricklin needed to "do something" based on what is the video "evidence" and not be Arizona and Sean Miller, but this sort of feels like Spurrier and the FSU non-support from Foley. Not that Spurrier didn't want to test his skills at the NFL level, but it DID change his outlook about wanting to continue with the silliness of the UF expectations. Sully can look at his decision to have to roll back his baseball acumen for something less necessary due to the actions of his boss and may decide that greener pastures may need more than a passing glance. And to that, boys and girls, be careful for what you wish. You just may end up getting it.
If you lose it and scream a bunch of f-bombs at other people during work and your boss later asks you to apologize, I should hope your lesson is not “man I need to find a better boss.”
Im generally not an "either or" person when discussing nuanced matters and coaches should receive proportional criticism when warranted but that isn't what's happening here. When a coach or anyone for that matter calls out people like jimbo fisher, Kirby smart with that same fervor and publicity after a couple of deaths related to culture, sexual misconduct but no repercussions etc etc maybe I'll lend a little more veracity to the feigned outrage over a baseball coach yelling and cursing over a perceived or legitimate slight. Once again, most people aren't defending his actions but take exception with the response... Keep the disagrees coming...
So all this was over our game time being moved 1 hour?? Is that right? Sully went ballistic over a 1 hour delay and cursed out everyone under the sun including guys on the Coastal team? If that's right- and I said if- then that explains our game Sunday. Because our guys CLEARLY were not ready to play and the other team was- who by the way also had an hour delay. I understand some will not like hearing this. But players take their cues from their coach and if the coach starts losing it over a small delay, the players will too. I say this as a high school coach and a guy who competed under one of UF's best coach of all time. (Not in baseball.)
This may not be entirely accurate. ECU played late. They were allegedly aware of the game time change after they finished and were able to plan their morning accordingly. FLORIDA was not notified until the morning (before or after they started prepping for a noon game?). I know we did not put out a notice of game time until 9:50 AM, and people were confused about what time the game was starting. I think it's possible that FLORIDA may have had a legitimate gripe about how they were treated, and Sully's method of expressing that does not excuse any mishandling of the situation that may have occurred. Too many times we settle for a binary when it comes to fault in these situations. It's more likely reasonable to consider that mistakes were made by multiple parties here. You will note that in Sully's apology, he never said that he was wrong about what he was upset about...just that he expressed it poorly. Sully has owned up to his mistake. There are accounts that suggest there were other mistakes made, but I'm not holding my breath to see if anybody else will own up to those. I can't say whether or not it had any impact on the game, but our fate, in my view, was largely sealed once we fell into the loser's bracket. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
O'Sullivan was probably already upset that Jeff Head's umpiring crew was assigned this Regional. The time change was just the final straw that caused him to lose it - maybe.
Reasonable take and again, not an "excuse" for his behavior but also not worthy of a self- righteous diatribe condemning him in a press conference either.
It does seem that part of the missing context was the timing and process of how Florida was notified of the time change, not just that the time change happened. That's why he's going through the effing list of all the effing people that need to be effing told about the effing time change in the clip that's floating around.
Most people here know this, I suspect, but big-time athletes and coaches tend to be absolutely obsessed with routine. They want everything scheduled down to the minute. So for a noon game you show up at the park at X time, you do fielding practice at Y time, batting practice at Z time, etc. That all gets shifted around if your noon game gets moved to 1 p.m. Athletes and coaches can have wildly disproportionate reactions to mild changes in their routine. Which isn't a defense of O'Sullivan -- there are lots of ways of articulating that point to the officials and conveying your displeasure without getting caught on video in an expletive-filled rant.
In a nutshell @MadduxFanII you are absolutely correct. In fact in that big a bowl of BS there are many many reasons floating around to contribute to the final straw that breaks the camel’s back.
