It’s that time of year again where former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield takes a shot at the Texas Longhorns.
Although he grew up in the city of Austin, Mayfield has always expressed his hatred towards the Longhorns. After he wasn’t offered a scholarship to play at Texas, he walked-on at Texas Tech before ultimately exploding onto the scene with Oklahoma.
The Red River Rivalry runs deep on and off the field. On Friday, Mayfield kicked it up a notch regarding the annual ‘Horns Down’ conversation that was brought up at Big 12 media days this week.
Greg Burks, Big 12 Coordinator of Football Officials, stated “If you do a Horns Down to a Texas player as an opponent, that’s going to be a foul,” moving forward. That elicited a response from Mayfield claiming that the Texas program is mentally weak and is being protected by the refs.
The tweet quickly caught the attention of many and surpassed 21,000 likes in a matter of hours. However, the majority of the Texas fan base and players view the Horns Down gesture differently than Mayfield seems to think. To put it simply, they don’t care if someone does it or not.
Bijan Robinson and Keondre Coburn both stated at Big 12 media days that it doesn’t phase them, while D’Shawn Jamison mentioned the same via Twitter recently.
In regards to the officials, it’s considered taunting and is not mutually exclusive to Texas and its hand gesture. Seldom has a player been able to get in the face of another player, taunt them and get away without a 15-yarder. It happens all across college football.
It’s fair to say it’s become a bigger deal to the Sooners than the Longhorns.
One Texas fan even stated “We don’t care Baker. They’re not protecting us and I promise you, If y’all had a historical hand sign, I’d throw it down too.” Take a look at some of the best reactions from Mayfield’s response on the next page.