‘Horns down.’ Without a doubt, a topic brought up every single time at Big 12 Media Days. A tradition becoming so prevalent, Aggies would be proud.
The internet was in shambles again on Thursday afternoon when the gesture was once again talked about. Big 12 officiating coordinator Greg Burks was asked a question about how teams would be penalized if they flash the gesture.
“If you do a Horns Down to a Texas player as an opponent, that’s going to be a foul.”
Well… yeah. That kind of makes sense. This would be Taunting 101 and is not mutually exclusive to Texas and their hand gesture. Rarely has a player ever been able to get in the face of another player, taunt them, and get away without a 15-yarder.
Burks even went on to say later that flashing ‘Horns Down’ in front of the crowd would “probably” not be a penalty.
Soft is how most people would describe this, thinking it would offend Longhorn fans throughout the country. The idea of doing a simple gesture being a 15-yard penalty makes the University of Texas look like cry babies.
Soft or not, not calling a penalty is inconsistent from examples we have seen in college football throughout the past.
In 2017, Tennessee running back John Kelly got flagged 15 yards for a hardcore ‘Gator Chomp’ in the Swamp against Florida after scoring a touchdown. It was not to any of the players, just the crowd.
Texas A&M was a victim of a gruesome ‘Thumbs Down’ in 2011 against Baylor after a Robert Griffin III touchdown pass to Tevin Reese.
Ole Miss famously lost the 2019 Egg Bowl because Elijah Moore decided to act like a dog using the restroom after scoring a touchdown. One missed extra point later and the Rebels had a new head coach in Lane Kiffin.
There could be plenty more examples throughout college football.
I can speak on behalf of every Texas fan not named Tom Herman and Sam Ehlinger: We don’t care if a team does ‘Horns Down’ or not. Let UT fans throw it up, let everybody else in the country throw it down.
Big 12 officials having to comment on this topic every year is getting ridiculous. Talking about this for a few years now is getting repetitive and everyone is over it.
Let’s just play some football while still having some fun.