Beth Sullivan making headlines at UT

While I do not think BAS made an intelligent political move I did look up the Morgan Harvey girl. No doubt what BAS saw was what any college coach would have seen, good junior year and declining senior HS year as she appeared to gain weight. Not an SEC athlete. Again, I do not think what BAS did appropriate and feel she should have given the young lady one year, but from a purely athletic standpoint the hurdler would not have been a contributor to any SEC success.

I am as close as you can get to this without being one of the athletes. First let me say that the story is factually correct (except the 3 scholarship athletes were from the 2013/2014 recruiting class not 2014/2015). All 6 of these girls did nothing wrong. I know for a fact my daughter refused to even go to "Track Parties", she was dedicated to UT and the Track and Field program.

Let's get the timeline straight here:

1. In June we were informed that Coach Clark would not be rehired. This concerned us but we new Coach Sandra Fyke-Couch (the event coach who recruited all 3 scholarship athletes) would still be there.

2. In July my daughter was contacted by Coach Sullivan to touch base and I believe to make sure my daughter was still coming. After that first call from Coach Sullivan there was no contact for the rest of the Summer from her.

3. In late July or early August we found out that Coach Couch was given a 5 minute interview to retain her job and then told she would not be returning to the UT coaching staff. This is when we got worried, but we gave Coach Sullivan the benefit and thought maybe she wanted her own people. This was a big mistake on our part. We trusted her...shame on me. Sullivan would have had a difficult time retaining Coach Couch while releasing her top 3 recruited sprinter/hurdlers. I'm sure all hell would have broken loose.

I believe she knew she wanted that scholarship money from the day she looked at where the money was going. You see she came from a PSU team of 76 female athletes and UT only had 22. She wanted to change the dynamics of the team and she needed money since every D-1 women's program is allowed only 16-1/2 scholarships per year per team. These 3 girls had 2-3/4 of those scholarships among 3 athletes. It is my thought she feels she can at least double the amount to 6 athletes with partial athletic scholarships and the balance made up with either academic scholarship or need based money.

She broke no NCAA rule. She is allowed to do that. However, what she did by making sure these girls arrived at UT was to guarantee they would not be running against her after they left for a year. Also, by letting them go so late this year they are having difficulty finding scholarships for the Fall of 2015 because offers have already been given out to the 2014/2015 recruiting class because early signing in November was reenacted for 2015. If it wasn't a calculated move on her part it sure worked out well for her. I'm sure she just didn't count on the negative press.

Coach Sullivan should have been upfront with us from the very beginning. She knew she was going to make changes but wanted it to all fall in her favor as to when. She did NOT consider what she was doing to these scholarship recruits and quite frankly, I don't think she cared. She was happy none of the recruiting class left her before they got there, yet she had no problem dismissing them when it suited her "vision". Whatever that is. She NEVER gave them a chance. She also Never gave them the opportunity to bow out of her program before they got there by pretending to be very happy with the recruiting class. I feel she is very disingenuous and if I where a parent of a recruit she was courting now I would have to think this woman has no integrity.

On another note the Big Ten Conference has adopted a 4 year scholarship program for it's athletes in all sports. This does not mean an athlete can't be released. It just means now the athlete has more say in his/her future with a school. That is the way it should be. In the past with SEC athletes are given a 1 year renewable scholarship. This means the coach gets to renew them. What is wrong with this is it gives the Coach all the power. What if the athlete feels he/she has second thoughts about the coach. That athlete should also be able to be released from the school. It would only be fair play for the athlete to have the same advantage as the coach. I think you would then find a lot less Coaching decisions like this one by Coach Sullivan because she would realize you can't just disrupt athletes lives at your own whim. Athletes would be treated more fairly by coaches for fear the team would transfer on them. If this story and other stories of mistreated athletes takes hold in the media then there will have to be changes in NCAA rules preventing Coaches like Beth Sullivan to mistreat athletes like she has done. However this falls in the future Sullivan is getting exacting what she deserves, a whole lot of bad press. Maybe she will learn that the best policy is to be upfront with people, then we may not agree with her but at least could respect her decision to not renew our girls scholarship. She could have also helped them find new schools...but I bet that would be embarrassing for her to admit to others she'd done this.

Great post!

Well said Alan. I'm sure many other Penn State alums had the same sentiment as you when it was announced she was moving to UT.

For Update on Athlete Ability. Unfortunately, you do not know the full story about this athlete. While her Junior year posted slightly better times her senior started better than her Junior year posting her 3rd best time in the 2014 Penn Relays winning the Gold Watch by being the fastest American in the 400 hurdles. This was very early in the season. Two injuries because of the horrific winter and running on concrete floors in hallways caused the second half of the seasons decline. Sullivan was aware of this. The only weight gained was pure muscle because of weight training. The fact is her recruited time would have placed in the SEC. She was the #3 400 hurdler in the country in 2013/2014 recruiting class. She was released so Sullivan could expand the distance program.

...stories like this are why I tell all my kids to never trust the recruiting college coach. They're all lying used-car salesmen lazy scumbags. They want to sign you for cheap, and view you as nothing but cattle to be used for a purpose and discarded.

Never think that a recruiting college coach is looking out for your best interests.

crame wrote:

Well said Alan. I'm sure many other Penn State alums had the same sentiment as you when it was announced she was moving to UT.

yep... if by "many" you mean all of us

Thanks for the post.

Your a little off on some of the small facts, number of scholarships etc.. but overall thanks for the inside view.

prefan80 wrote:

crame wrote:

Well said Alan. I'm sure many other Penn State alums had the same sentiment as you when it was announced she was moving to UT.

yep... if by "many" you mean all of us

Isn't that the truth.

Totally Evil Private Coach wrote:

...stories like this are why I tell all my kids to never trust the recruiting college coach. They're all lying used-car salesmen lazy scumbags. They want to sign you for cheap, and view you as nothing but cattle to be used for a purpose and discarded.

Never think that a recruiting college coach is looking out for your best interests.

I think there are many trustworthy coaches out there, proven by their "track record" with past athletes. You can't lump them all together.

Beth likes to have absolute power.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely

I was no cut from a team but I can assure you that i am more qualified and knowledgeable about this situation than you. The simple fact that you suspect the coach took the high road speaks to how insane what she did is. Good kids, no issues, just not valued...period! This isn't Wall Street. Coaches are supposed to be teachers and examples (like it or not). What lesson was taught here? Winning is all that matters? B.S.

You're ridiculous. Maybe these parents aren't helicopter parents. Maybe their parents that now have to make some financial/real life decisions because there lives were somewhat...ummm...altered. Can parents not be pissed or concerned here? Were you raised by wolves?

No Coach wrote:

What a bunch of BS.

Al Oerter won 4 Olympic gold Medals without a coach. If they want it bad enough they'll find a way. Helicopter parents are the reason Millennials are the most worthless generation yet.

(Are they supposed to go out and buy hurdles and set them up themselves? Are they supposed to time themselves?)

NCAA rules will not allow you to recruit with tied up money. Early signing this year. Needed the money now to make offers.

opinionated guy wrote:

Rizzo'sHO wrote:

Forget about the human angle for a minute and think about how stupid of a 'coaching' move this is.

It makes NO sense to me from a coaching standpoint. The money is committed for this season. Why wouldn't you show what a great coach you are by developing these young women with obvious potential during the season. If you can't, then turn them loose in May and recruit more talented women that you do not have to develop. There is no reason to drop them now unless you are trying to make a point of some sort that unfortunately is lost on everyone but you.

POOR move coach! It looks like you have no confidence in your ability to move good talent to a better level and appears you have an ax to grind with everyone in your path. Bad show!

Beth Sullivan is an obamanation.

not clear on the point wrote:

The coach isn't doing them a favor by cutting them, but may be doing them a favor by choosing not to disclose the reason for the cut.

Here's what's been factually established so far.

* The coach has a history of being a self-absorbed and ruthless twat, according to people who know hr and ran for her

* Six young women got the axe at the same time

* The coach would have inarguably come off looking much BETTER than she does now if she could point to a tangible reason for these athletes' dismissal, rather than retreating into a vague "they didn't fit the vision" comment

* The coach is increasingly fat and ugly and unpleeasant looking with the passage of time (not really on point, but worth noting IMO)

You're not someone for whom probability plays much of a role in your life, are you? Are you one of those people who thinks that it makes just as sense to believe in, say, world history as given my the Christian Bible as it does to believe in no god at all because there must be two equally valid and hence equally probable sides to every story?

As others have said, try thinking critically about this for 30 seconds and see if your thinking doesn't change some. Of course, if you're that ugly twat herself or one of her paid minions or mouthpieces, all bets are off.

Alan Scharsu wrote:

Totally Evil Private Coach wrote:

...stories like this are why I tell all my kids to never trust the recruiting college coach. They're all lying used-car salesmen lazy scumbags. They want to sign you for cheap, and view you as nothing but cattle to be used for a purpose and discarded.

Never think that a recruiting college coach is looking out for your best interests.

I think there are many trustworthy coaches out there, proven by their "track record" with past athletes. You can't lump them all together.

I agree and for many years track and field did not have this type of behavior from coaches. Furthermore, a coach can't do this without the approval of the Athletics Administration. Coaches answer to their bosses. So, I would say the administration is complicit with this type of behavior on the part of the Coach.

What doesn't make sense is waiting until the student-athlete showed up on campus, which now ties UT to providing the scholarship money to them for a year. By not allowing these girls to participate that money is useless and a throw away. I can't remember if an athlete could be released from an NFI before coming to campus, thus freeing up that money for use in January or some late transfer, but certainly that option would have been much better, if it were available.

There are plenty of school, even strong D1 schools, where this type of behavior would not be tolerated, either by the coach or by the administration. This sets a bad example for big time track and field and the direction it might be heading if other coaches follow her lead.

Hopefully, that will not be the case.

BAS has only been on the job a few months. Talk about making a name for herself.

These threads are getting so redundant with the amount of people that are bashing BAS and defending the "victims" as if they are all innocent and the coaches are ruthless.

The truth of the matter is that the parents out there have no idea what a D1 coaching staff and support staff have to endure during the tenure of an average elite athlete. I have been associated with an elite D1 track program for many years and can tell you from experience that more often than not, the "rock star" athletes that are entitled their whole lives come in with a chip on their shoulder and very rarely ever live up to expectations.

I can tell you from first hand experience that so many elite athletes show up to campus, locked into a full scholorship, and completely go down hill from there. They show up to campus out of shape; they gain excess weight and they don't take the advice from the coaching staff, training staff or nutritionist regarding how to better prepare themselves to perform at an optimal level. They get lazy in a short period of time and don't want to take the initiative to make themselves better. These athletes have unlimited resources and typically abuse the situation. Instead of going in for rehab, they only want to get a massage or they get mad and walk out if the demands are not met. They don't want to put the work in to be the best. They only want to be pampered. In practices their work ethic is horrible. Most of these girls come in out of shape and are collapsing all of the track in the first few weeks with dramatic injuries that are brought upon by themselves for not being in shape or taking care of themselves, and a majority of the complaints are typically phantom injuries that magically disappear after the workout is over. This happens every single day with athletes that are suppose to be race horses. If you are in the SEC or a power 5 conference program, you don't have time to deal with this nonsense. It drains everyone on the team, the staff, and the support staff.

The problem is that all of the parents out their thinks and assumes that their daughter is a gift to the track world when in reality they are doing nothing but sucking the life out of everyone that is trying to help them and their teammates. The parents typically only hear one side and that is what their child is telling them. I guarantee you if the parents had an open, honest round table discussion with fellow teammates, staff and support staff about how their athlete is truly "stacking up" then they would be in shock.

It's truly frustrating to hear all of these remarks about the "victims" lives being ruined by BAS. The truth is that more than likely, a lot of these kids cause more stress than they are worth...not necessarily talking specifically about these 6...just in general. Yes, they might have been successful in high school, but very few of them actually excel in the SEC. We have seen so many elite athletes that come in on full scholarship and maintain that scholarship for 4 years without ever running a step in a college track meet. They get complacent and lazy and figure out that they can get everything paid for, use all of the resources, and not have to put the hard work in. Instead of the these athletes and parents getting blasted for not fulfilling their obligations, the coaches get blamed for their team not performing. I'm serious, this happens every year at every major university and it is never talked about.

If you are going to hold the coaches accountable for performance and their "cut-throat" antics to change the culture of their team then let's step up to the plate and hold the parents and athletes accountable as well. Parent's, for example: If you daughter goes to an elite level school on full scholarship and you have SO much confidence in them then their should be a clause that if they gain weight, become lazy and don't fulfill their obligations then it is the families responsibility to repay that scholarship. Maybe if that happened then the athletes would actually take their "job" a little more serious and the parents would actually see what truly goes on behind the scenes on a daily basis. But until that happens, the coaches have the right to make changes anytime they see fit to create a culture and a team that it takes to win.