This college softball feud has gone from the diamond into the Twitterverse.
The father of Texas Tech star Taylor Pannell allegedly took a shot on X at Tennessee coach Karen Weekly and also a reporter in the aftermath of the controversial postgame handshake following the Lady Volunteers’ win over the Red Raiders in the College World Series on Saturday.
Pannell transferred to Texas Tech from Tennessee last offseason, and then alleged that her ex-coach told her she made a “mistake” in the postgame handshake line after Texas Tech’s 2-1 win.
Brandon Pannell allegedly quote tweeted in a since-deleted post a clip of his daughter’s comments with the caption: “@KarenWeekly was right that my kid did make a mistake and that was to play for her…”
He also allegedly posted, according to Sports Illustrated, since-deleted tweets that referenced money, “living rent free in a weak fan base heads” and how he loves the attention his posts have received.
Brandon then purportedly sent the Sports Illustrated reporter a nasty DM that he would post, and, again, deleted from X.
“@Maren_Angus your dad is rolling around in his grave reading the click bait trash you continue to write. You have been fired from Fastpitch News, Softball America and D1 Softball would not hire you. Wonder why??” he allegedly wrote Sunday to the reporter, Maren Angus-Coombs. “Don’t get me wrong I do love the attention but I prefer the attention coming from a loser hiding behind a fake account. …If you don’t want to be a fake journalist, why don’t you do your job and get the video of the hand shake line.”
The bad blood between the Pannell family and Tennessee dates back to her Taylor leaving the SEC program for Texas Tech after three seasons.
Taylor announced her commitment to Texas Tech on X on June 12, 2025, and Weekly posted a notable message to her X account the next day that could be viewed as her alleging there had been nefarious tactics used to lure Taylor from Knoxville to Lubbock, Texas.
The outfielder entered the portal right after Tennessee’s 2025 season ended with a do-not-contact tag and visited Texas Tech espite not being in the transfer portal, per Sports Illustrated.
“I think we can all agree on 2 things: 1) women making money in sports is awesome and long overdue; 2) contacting players (directly or indirectly) before their season ends and signing them to NIL deals before they enter the portal is wrong,” Weekly wrote last year. “Money isn’t the issue – tampering is!”
After Tennessee beat Texas Tech on Saturday, the teams engaged in the normal handshake line and Taylor alleged that Weekly crossed a line.
“We were walking through the line, just saying, ‘Good game,’ and she said that I made a mistake instead of saying good game, which is kind of crazy, celebrate with your team,” Taylor said. “I just think it’s funny she’s still thinking about it, but it’s old news. Whatever.”
Weekly offered a different account, although she was not asked about Pannell’s remark.
“Just good game. Like I say to ever player,” Weekly said. “Just good game.”
ESPN showed video of the handshake line and it appeared that Pannell did not say anything out of the norm to Taylor, who walked by without stopping.
A few moments later when Weekly was “well behind” Taylor, per ESPN, the outfield then turned around and started jawing at an unspecified person.
Weekly later accused Taylor of an “outright lie” and was quite angry, per knoxnews.com.
“If you rewatch at the tape of the handshake line, you’re going to see me go just as fast by her as anybody else,” Weekly told the outlet. “I didn’t even know where she was in the handshake line . . . that’s an outright lie. I said ‘good game’ like I said to every other player.”
Texas Tech and Tennessee could meet again in the College World Series final on June 3, with the two teams playing in their respective semifinals Monday.
Tennessee faces Texas and needs one win to advance, while Texas Tech must beat Alabama twice to have a shot to win the national championship.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
