Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings has apologized for a postgame incident Thursday night in which he was caught on camera berating his player Wade Baldwin IV profanely, at one point saying, “I’m going to f—ing kill you.” Stallings said “he did not mean his words literally” when confronting Baldwin, who had taunted a Tennessee player in the postgame handshake line. Based on his choice of words, I am not sure his apology is going to end this story.
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“I handled it completely inappropriately and I apologized to Wade — and I need to apologize to our fans and the Vanderbilt administration,” the longtime coach told ESPN. “Having said that, and it may seem as though I’m trying to rationalize my behavior, sportsmanship will continue to be a high priority. I did not mean it in the literal sense and I’ve never touched a player in all my years as a coach. That’s not me. I will learn from this and handle this situation differently in the future.”
The funny thing is the coach only apologized after he realized his own comments went viral, because directly after the game during his post game presser, he only talked about his player Baldwin needing to grow up.
After the Commodores’ 73-65 victory, Baldwin was seen clapping in the face of Tennessee forward Armani Moore.
Stallings was informed of Baldwin’s actions by a Vols staff member. The Commodores coach then pulled Baldwin out of the handshake line and loudly and profanely berated him.
Stallings also apologized for his comments via a university statement, saying: “One of our players acted inappropriately and violated what we believe to be is good sportsmanship following the game. In my haste to resolve the situation, I made a very inappropriate comment. While obviously it was not meant literally, it was still inappropriate. I apologized to the player immediately following the game.”
Sources told ESPN that Stallings has had issues with Baldwin trash-talking to opponents this season.
