Taylor Smartt will not return to coach UAB during the AAC college softball tournament in Greenville. She remains on leave amid allegations of racism and abuse.
The 34-year-old is also accused of an inappropriate relationship with one of her players.
Smartt is expected to be terminated as the college softball coach at UAB if the university finds definitive proof of wrongdoing. It will first provide her with require due process.
Taylor Smartt is under investigation.
As a native of Alabama, Smartt started 191 games in four seasons at Troy University during her playing career. She began coaching at her alma mater right after graduation and spent eight years on staff with the Trojans.
Taylor Smartt later took over the defense at FAU in 2023 and was named as the associate head coach in 2024. UAB hired her as its sixth head coach in program history on August 7, 2024.
The Blazers finished at 24-31 during Smartt’s first season at the helm. They had much higher hopes for 2026 but things did not go according to plan. UAB went 21-32. It will need to make a miraculous run to win the AAC Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament.
If that was not bad enough, a scandal continues to build behind the scenes.
Smartt was placed on administrative leave at the end of April with five games left in the regular season. She actually traveled to Florida to watch UAB play her former team (FAU) but did not stay in the team hotel and kept her distance from the players while they enjoyed Boca Raton.
Smartt did not travel for the conference tournament. Anna Shelnutt is serving as the interim head coach.
The sudden dismissal was not explained by the university. An investigation remains ongoing. UAB will make a decision on its head softball coach after it is complete. Nothing is confirmed or final.
However, if the allegations against Smartt are true, they do not bode well for her future in coaching.
The UAB softball scandal continues to unravel.
Allegations against Taylor Smartt include claims of racism, abuse and Title IX (and NCAA) violations. To make matters worse, she and Director of Operations Julie Money are also accused of an inappropriate relationship with one of their players.
Maren Angus-Coombs of Softball On SI spoke with multiple sources within the program. Her latest report provides a full understanding of the college softball scandal and the claims of players both past and present.
Auburn Dupree played for Smartt at UAB in 2025. Her mother wrote the following email to the administration about her daughter’s experience:
“Unfortunately, her senior year became a profoundly distressing experience that has had a lasting impact on her mentally […] Throughout that season, my daughter was repeatedly subjected to what I can only describe as mental and verbal abuse… There were deeply concerning remarks made by Coach Smartt regarding my daughter’s appearance, including racially insensitive comments about her braided hairstyle, which was referred to as ‘jailhouse braids.’ Such comments are unacceptable in any professional or educational setting.”
— Lindsey Dupree
Dupree corroborated her mother’s email. She told Softball On SI that her mental health crumbled when Smartt told her that her teammates voted her as “the moodiest player on the team.” One of Dupree’s teammates said the team was made to believe Auburn was a horrible person because of Smarrt.
“[Smartt] is manipulative and makes you second-guess your worth as a player, a friend, and just as a human.”
Another parent spoke with Angus-Coombs on the condition of anonymity. She claims that Smartt told her daughter to stop spending time with her “charred” friends.
Smartt is also accused of an inappropriate relationship with a player. A different player walked in on the head coach, her director of operations, and a teammate on the couch in a compromising position.
“The coach maintains an inappropriately close relationship with a specific player, including sleeping over at the player’s residence,” reads the formal complaint.
These allegations, among others, led to a pair of administrative meetings. A group of parents met with Athletic Director Mark Ingram, Deputy Athletic Director Dan Carlson, and Compliance Director Katreshia Louis Verrett on Thursday, April 23 and Friday, April 24. Taylor Smartt was then placed on leave.
Allegations of abuse do not bode well for the head coach.
The allegations mentioned above were just the tip of the iceberg. It goes so much deeper.
Taylor Smartt supposedly punched one of her players, twice, during a game against East Carolina on March 27, 2026. A complaint filed with UAB also claims that she would withhold food after losses and often failed to provide meals that met “the nutritional standards required for Division I athletes.”
The threat of physical punishment is another issue.
Four current Blazers said that Smartt threatened to loosen their *B-holes* with her fingers. She supposedly had a signal for it during the games. She did not try to hide it.
There are also allegations of physical abuse during offseason workouts.
“She forced [our assistant coach] to put her 4Runner in neutral, and we would have to push it down to the football parking lot and run in front of it while moving, stop it, and then start pushing it back again,” a current member of the team told Softball On SI. “And one of my teammates almost got, like, actually ran over doing it. She tripped and fell, and the car almost went over her.”
The student-athletes were also forced to tread water until they felt like they “were going to die.” Some of them did not know how to swim. Their teammates had to watch them struggle not to drown.
One of the program’s top boosters was the first person to report the problem to the administration. The retired Army officer warned athletic director Mark Ingram on April 21 that he had “a powder keg with over 20 dynamite sticks about to explode.” You can read about the full sequence of events here.
If the university investigation finds any truth to these allegations, Taylor Smartt is going to be fired and her college softball coaching career is likely over. She is innocent until proven guilt but the depth of this scandal does not bode well for her future at UAB.
And — one point that might get lost in all of this — athletic director Mark Ingram is the same guy who hired Trent Dilfer. How does he keep his job after all this?