This is a good take- all of it but the bolded part especially. However, this is baseball, so I would imagine changes in game time happen often with weather...
Just wanted to thank you for a great take (as usual), and say that you are right that if we didn't find out until 10am while ECU found out the previous night then that is relevant. And completely unfair. I'm not at all treating this as binary. However, I still stand by assertion that a coach losing it will affect his players readiness.
And confirming what other parties might be at fault in pushing Sully over the edge of coaching statesmanship is Strickland’s job. That is how he can provide some support to Sully and to help ensure this kind of outburst isn’t precipitated again for any team. Of course, someone may have actually pissed in Sully’s Wheaties at breakfast, and I would be pissed about that, too.
A comment to help some of us to move on from all this speculation....(oh wait it's the internet) I wonder what happens from here, the next time the committee looks at CCU as a host. Might the committee skip over Conway as a 16 seed host and reason it away with another West Coast location. Do they make sure Florida doesn't go back to Conway for awhile. I don't see Florida refusing to accept a Conway bid but do the officials there do a better job notifying Sully on delays. That said, I don't expect we see Florida back in Conway for many years to come.
I cant support the tirade but the suckup CC coach's grandstanding and SS with the usual pompousness is a bit much.
The answer is that we need to win enough games so that we host and don't have to worry about what another venue does.
This is a highly inopportune time for Sully’s outburst to go viral-- the article in the Orlando Sentinel (shared by GatorJJH) notes that Sully also berated and verbally abused an ECU ball player- that is pretty egregious, if true. This is a pivotal time of year when players and their parents are making decisions on where to play college ball or their next stop via the portal. To have this unfortunate episode come out at this time cannot help our cause in recruiting. Sully is a fiery and at times volatile coach- some players can work with that others prefer not to. The fact that both Sully and Stricklin were compelled to issue apologies says it all.
Sully probably overreacted. But the Coastal Carolina coach is soft. Grown ass man whining to the media about a college baseball coach losing his temper and using colorful language. Dude’s acting like they’re coaching 6th graders.
I have a lot more info now and I'm grateful for some very good discussion. That very good stuff doesn't include self-righteous comments about vulgarities being used in an argument. I'm one who wishes for a more civil society, but those who are SHOCKED, SHOCKED that a baseball coach uses F-bombs make me roll my eyes. The apparent reasons for Sully's tirade certainly- to me- justify a tirade. A program that represents itself as moving around with the big boys- the quality of their performance justifies that representation- including building shiney and pretty facilities. It also appears the nice facility and its staff aren't quite ready for the demands of hosting. Not everyone has SEC-type facilities, but those facilities DO make for better playing conditions. If it's true that CC notified one team of the time change Saturday night and the other on Sunday morning, THAT justifies strong complaints. The host fans are welcome to dislike and cheer against guest teams, but the host organization is obligated to do back flips to ensure fair treatment of all guest teams. My impression isn't that this was a terrible offense, but it WAS an offense tied to responsibilities of a competent host. First of all, they should be fully prepared to respond to the NORMAL weather for the time of year, second, communication, such as schedule changes should be complete and immediate. I have not heard any regret from CC sbout their poor response to a normal weather event, including poor communication. The two people to whom Sully complained seemed to have little to say, but the CC coach comments and complaints from others on the scene NEVER suggested there was justification for complaints- MORE miscommunication that was purposeful. I'd like to think Strickland and Sully agreed to release the double statements and put the thing behind them. I'd like the same thing, but I may respond to further comments that call for response.
I agree with that 100% and most, if not all of what you said and do not care that he cussed like a sailor to the men he was making his point with. I still think doing it in front of those women was classless and uncalled for.
fROM THE Sentinel 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.” Florida baseball coach Kevin O'Sullivan is facing blowback for his behavior at the NCAA Conway Regional in South Carolina, where the Gators' season ended during the NCAA Tournament. (AP Photo/Gary McCullough, File) 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.” Gators coach Kevin O'Sullivan acknowledged that East Carolina played better than his team over the weekend. (AP File Photo/Gary McCullough) 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.”
It's easy to dismiss this as a bunch of whining over bad words, but O'Sullivan is a public figure and the public face of the program. How he chooses to express his anger in a public setting is a legitimate issue. If he had dressed down the CCU official calmly, by saying, "This is incompetent, unprofessional and unacceptable. I don't care if you think an hour delay isn't a big deal. We're the ones who have to play the game and we need to know when it's going to start. You should know that. This is bush league and you need to pull it together." there wouldn't be a controversy. Repeatedly shouting obscenities in a staffer's face is a bad look, particularly when it's caught on camera (and you need to assume it will be in 2025).
The most egregious thing about this incident is; how do we lose a second time to a team that played an extra inning game that finished at midnight the night before?
