Controversial coach Beth Alford-Sullivan FIRED

I know and I was responding to the post about the girls leaving the program

Its official on the TN website - states that the school and the coach have mutually agreed to part ways. Query what the reasons were.

Letsrun skeptics go home devastated

lol @ "mutually agreed to part ways":

"You're FIRED!"

"You can't fire me, I QUIT!"

Surprisingly Letsrun always has the scoop on instances like this and people always are skeptical and then it comes out 2-3 hours later. Letsrun is the TMZ of the running world.

He or she did not.

I’m guessing that the snake Harnden played a role. Just saying…

Yes, she was asked to leave. You can bet they paid something for her to leave.

Dana Boone is the next HC. The current UT AD came from UCF. Boone checks all the boxes

good luck trying to replace Beth. And if you think Ken wasn’t behind this you’re wrong

Better not be, that would be a HORRID hire.

Her contract was expiring. How could he have affected that?

"good luck trying to replace Beth." Sure, because getting 9th in the SEC Outdoor Women's meet this spring is a great result !?!

Maybe they can someone that gives a damn about cross country and distance on the track.

There were nearly 800 posts about how she started her reign at Tennessee. You can get caught up here.

Inside Scoop on Beth from an athlete:

Rumors are running rampant on "why" Beth was fired. I won't speculate on any of the possible causes of her termination, but there were key issues with the ex-UT coach.

The biggest red flag was the division within the team. She caused this by her favoritism, taking credit for athletes' success, the minimal effort she put into caring about her athletes as young adults, her lack of leadership, pitting athletes against one another, and manipulating/misleading athletes whether it be not racing them for BS reasons or falsely promising a scholarship or spot on the travel bus.

Team meetings consisted of her listening to herself talk about winning, how "you athletes need to fix this culture, not me", "C's get degrees." Female distance runners were frequently told they needed to lose weight to be faster and female sprinters were told to "get rid of the silly colored hair and nails."

Beth is often commended for coaching multiple SEC individual titles and even Olympian Christian Coleman. Ironically, she did not ever personally coach him, or the majority of scoring athletes at major conference meets.... No, Beth was in charge of the distance runners, the lowest scoring out of the entire team. The XC women did improve exponentially within the past 5 years, but only due to the recruitment of talent and the females' own commitment to one another. The XC men have remained a stagnant 3rd/4th, always choking at big races. Why??? Her outdated and minimal effort training plan, lack of trust in her athletes, her extreme favoritism towards the top runners, and the LACK OF DEVELOPMENT of athletes. The only distance runner success stories at UT were already top recruits in their class and naturally talented.

The assistant coaches of the UT team are to be credited for the past successes of the UT Track Team. Too bad many of them have gone to different schools...as well as some of the best athletes. For example, Jonathan Sacour the Belgian Olympian, Britton Wilson the current SEC champ, and, soon enough, the school record-holder Sydney Seymour. One huge foul play by Beth last year was keeping Coach Geopfert's departure to Arkansas a secret. His athletes found out by a group email ONE DAY after the transfer portal closed, leaving them "stuck" at UT without the coach they came to UT..how coincidental. These types of sneaky moves are typical for her; tactical and strategic, yes. But when there are 18-20-somethings' educational and athletic careers on the line? Very low.

Overall, she may be a good figurehead and she sure knows how to be in charge and demand respect. But, she lacks a deep passion for her athletes and has always prioritized her love for winning over her team and athletes.

I would not be surprised if her "mutual resignation" is due to the negative outcomes accumulated by these actions....and from current athletes speaking out against her unfair and non-compliant leadership decisions... or they wanted her out before her contract expires this year so they wouldn't have to pay her any region/NCAA bonuses..

Tony or Jose?