Taylor Pannell caught red-handed lying about the Tennessee-Karen Weekly drama

As the Lady Vols are still in the middle of their College World Series run, but things shifted off the field after Tennessee’s walk-off win over Texas Tech on Saturday. Following the game-winning home run, something happened in the handshake line that became a topic of discussion during the postgame press conference.

After the game, former Lady Vol Taylor Pannell claimed that Karen Weekly told her she made a mistake. Weekly later addressed the situation in her press conference, saying she only said “good game” to Pannell the same way she did with every Texas Tech player.

The story got even deeper, as Pannell's father got involved and was heckling on social media and taking shots at the Tennessee program. He said, He said stuff like, "Karen Weekly was right that my kid did make a mistake and that was to play for her..." He also said, "Living rent free in a weak fan base heads is the best feeling waking up this morning. Looks like I'm still winning." The whole thing has been crazy, and mostly for no reason.

Now the plot thickens with video evidence. ESPN broke the whole situation down, and it seems like Karen Weekly has been cleared. Holly Rowe said she personally heard Weekly say “good game,” and the video appears to back that up as well. Even if Pannell felt like she heard something different afterward, the footage shows she’s actually looking in the opposite direction from Weekly during the handshake line. In her defense, it does look like someone said something to Pannell, but I don't think it was Weekly.

Karen Weekly has been cleared

I mean, the video doesn’t lie. ESPN's Holly Rowe, as an unbiased source in this situation, clearly didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary, and the footage backs that up. Weekly appears to be in the clear here. Plain and simple. Now, it might be fair to question whether something was said to Pannell, but it likely wasn’t Weekly. It was probably just a Lady Vol talking trash, which is honestly kind of funny.

You also can’t ignore the possibility that these two teams could meet in the finals. Tennessee still has to get past Texas today, and Texas Tech would need to beat Alabama twice for it to even happen. But if it does, it would not be surprising at all if that matchup broke records. With everything already going on between these programs and how competitive the first game was, it would set up an incredible finals showdown on Wednesday night. For now, though, the Lady Vols just need to handle their business.

And at the end of the day, this is sports. Heated moments and trash talk come with the territory. If someone said something to Pannell about transferring, it’s part of the game. If it came from a coach, it's not the best look, but stuff happens. Don’t transfer, and you don’t deal with your former team chirping at you; it’s as simple as that.

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