Tag: Horns Down

Texas’ Rodney Terry screams expletive at ‘classless’ UCF players for Horns Down in handshake line

The Texas head coach was super mad about seeing the Horns Down from UCF players.

We know this much: Anytime an athlete or anyone else does the “Horns Down” hand signal at a Texas sporting event, it’s going to make headlines and tick off Longhorn Nation.

So, here you go: After UCF took down Texas on Wednesday night, video shows Knights players flashing the Horns Down as they started the postgame handshake like, and Longhorns head coach Rodney Terry screamed at them: “That’s classless! Don’t do that [expletive]!”

Both Terry and UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins — who said he didn’t see what happened that led to the confrontation — addressed it after the game, which you can watch below (WARNING: NSFW language ahead):

Oklahoma’s Ethan Downs threw out a Horns Down to troll Texas while being recognized during Sugar Bowl

The Red River Rivalry somehow made it to the Sugar Bowl.

Texas and Oklahoma’s Red River Rivalry remains one of the pettiest in all of college football.

It’s so petty that Sooners defensive end Ethan Downs didn’t miss an opportunity to troll the Longhorns while making an appearance during Monday’s Sugar Bowl to honor his off-field service work.

Downs made the 2023 AllState AFCA Good Works Team for his work in the community, and he threw out the infamous “Horns Down” symbol to mock Texas while he got some television time of his own.

If you’re an Oklahoma fan, you have to commend Downs for his dedication to the Red River Rivalry to bring it all the way to the College Football Playoff.

If you’re a Texas fan, well, you can hang your hat on the fact that the Longhorns actually played in the College Football Playoff and Oklahoma could only watch this year.

This rivalry will continue into the SEC next fall, and we wonder if Texas will remember this bit of unexpected “Horns Down” trolling in the next meeting.

Feature image courtesy of ESPN.

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Washington’s Devin Culp boldly taunted Texas with a ‘Horns Down’ after a Huskies TD

A Horns Down taunt this early in the game?!?!

The delightful disrespect was on full display during Monday night’s Sugar Bowl for Washington tight end Devin Culp.

After the Huskies scored a touchdown against Texas during the first half of the College Football Playoff semifinal game, Culp hit the Longhorns with a double “Horns Down” gesture, the infamous Texas taunt that has drawn penalties in the past when directed at a Longhorns player.

While there was still plenty of football left to play in the game, Culp felt more than comfortable to go ahead and get this huge taunt in early.

If Texas players saw this celebration, you can bet they took it personally.

If Washington won this game, Culp called it early by throwing down the ultimate Texas trolling. If Washington lost the game, he definitely threw out the “Horns Down” taunt much, much too early.

Either way, we appreciate the determination from Culp to do this celebration so early in the game.

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What is the SEC’s horns down policy?

How will the SEC handle the horns down taunt once Texas joins the conference?

With Texas joining the SEC next year, the conference has had to devise a new plan for a unique taunting motion directed at the Longhorns.

Indeed, opposing players reversing Texas’ horns up celebration into horns down has drawn ire from referees in the past. But SEC coordinator of officials John McDaid shared earlier this year how the conference plans to handle this gesture in the future.

Per Action Network’s Brett McMurphy, the way the horns down motion will be handled will depend on how it’s utilized. If it’s done directly to taunt a Texas player, it may result in an unsportsmanlike conduct call.

However, if it’s just done in celebration with other teammates, it doesn’t sound like the SEC will throw the flag.

McDaid compared it to the Gator Chomp and Land Shark motions directed at Florida and Ole Miss, respectively, and how those are not always called even when directed at the opponent.

We’ll see how things go on Saturdays once Texas joins the SEC in 2024.

What is the Big 12’s horns down policy?

How does the Big 12 handle opponents taunting Texas with the horns down gesture?

Texas football has one season left in the Big 12 before jumping into SEC competition starting with the 2024-25 season.

And that means how Big 12 officials decide to deal with Texas opponents throwing out the horns down gesture — it mocks the Longhorns’ horns up celebration — could still be a point of contention.

At 2022 Big 12 media days, conference commissioner Greg Burks shared that it’s always going to come down to how the gesture is used against opposing teams.

“Let me be very clear with Horns Down,” Burks said, via ESPN’s Dave Wilson. “I have no ownership on this symbol. This symbol is the same as all other signals. It’s when you do it, who you do it to and which manner you do it.”

So, if you’re wondering how Big 12 referees will call the horns down gesture, you’ll have to pay attention to how it’s happening.

If someone gets into a Texas player’s face and flashes a horns down, it’ll likely be called for unsportsmanlike conduct. If someone does it in the end zone with their teammates celebrating a touchdown, a call is less likely.

As Saturday’s Red River Showdown between Texas and Oklahoma is upon us, we’ll see how many horns down gestures we see, and if they get flagged or not if they happen on the field.

SEC uses critical thinking when it comes to Horns Down

The SEC is utilizing more critical thinking when it comes to the use of “Horns Down” when Texas and Oklahoma arrive in 2024.

The SEC is getting off to a great start welcoming the Red River Rivalry in 2024. If you needed another reason to like the Oklahoma Sooners move to the SEC, you got it this week at SEC media days.

Horns Down isn’t an automatic unsportsmanlike conduct penalty anymore.

To quote the great Toby Rowland: “You can unhitch the wagon! Put the ponies in the barn!” This is a big win in the world of college football.

“Unsportsmanlike conduct needs to fit one of three categories: Is it taunting an opponent? Is it making a travesty of the game? Is it otherwise compromising our ability to manage the game?,” said John McDaid, the conference’s coordinator of football officials, per Brett McMurphy. “There’s a difference between a player giving a signal directly in the face of an opponent, as opposed to doing it with teammates celebrating after a touchdown or on the sideline. To net all that out, every single occurrence is not an act of unsportsmanlike conduct.”

It sounds like it’ll simply boil down to the time and the place. If a player does Horns Down toward the Texas sideline or to a Longhorn on the field, then it’ll result in a 15-yard penalty. When Jackson Arnold and Jaquaize Pettaway meet in the end zone after a 60-yard touchdown strike in the Cotton Bowl and share a moment, Horns Down can and will more than likely be flashed.

Where the Big 12 got it wrong was with a blanket statement on the Horns Down gesture. It looks as if the SEC is going to take a more critically thought-out approach to its application of the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Because in the SEC “it just means more.”

In a conference that houses some of the best rivalries in college football, it’s only right that it has a better perspective on Horns Down.

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WATCH: Nick Saban goes off on players for using ‘horns down’ gesture

Nick Saban was NOT happy with a few players doing the ‘horns down’

Fans of the Crimson Tide will greet each other with a friendly “roll tide,” while Longhorns fans say “horns up” and do the accompanying hand gesture.

Football fans who aren’t too fond of Texas will respond with “horns down” and flip the hand gesture.

When the fourth quarter finally came to an end and Alabama officially defeated Texas, some Crimson Tide players were on the field throwing the horns down.

Saban was not too fond of this and a camera and mic caught him shouting at players to cut it out. However, the words he used were a bit different.

In the Big 12, players that do it on the field can be flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.

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CeeDee Lamb drops ‘Horns Down’ on arrival to Dallas Cowboys training camp practice

Arriving to practice one of Dallas Cowboys training camp, CeeDee Lamb responds to “Boomer Sooner” from OU fans in attendance with “Horns Down.”

Rivalries don’t end simply because a player graduates or moves on to the NFL. And when a rivalry runs as deep as it does between the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns, it makes for some fun moments.

Sooners great [autotag]CeeDee Lamb[/autotag] provided a fun reminder of the greatness of the Red River Rivalry when he arrived for the Dallas Cowboys first training camp practice in Oxnard, Cali.

After greeting fans with a couple of peace signs, Lamb heard a fan shout “Boomer Sooner!” To which the former Sooners wide receiver responded with a “Horns Down.”

Getting ready for his third season with the Dallas Cowboys, CeeDee Lamb has taken over as the No. 1 wide receiver for America’s team.

After a fantastic 2021 season, the Cowboys opted to trade Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns to save money in his $20 million cap hit for 2022.

Lamb is hoping ti build off of a season in which he caught 79 passes for 1,102 yards and six touchdowns to lead the Cowboys passing attack. Now, in the lead role, there are high expectations for Lamb to produce at an even greater rate in 2022.

If his “Horns Down” arrival to Dallas Cowboys training camp is any indication, Lamb is feeling it ahead of his third NFL season. Big things are coming for the Oklahoma product.

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The Big 12 will continue protecting Texas fans from the horror of ‘horns down’ even after it leaves the conference

But why?

Live from the department of rules nobody asked for, we have news not of the implementation of something new but rather of an old unnecessary rule that’s here to stay.

Remember when the Big 12 ruled that the “horns down” hand gesture — the one Texas opponents often do to mock the “hook’em horns” move — could result in a taunting penalty, even though it might not, but sometimes it will? Well, apparently that rule is here to stay even after Texas exits the Big 12 for greener pastures of the SEC likely sometime after 2023.

Responding to a question of whether it would still count as a penalty, Big 12 coordinator of officials Greg Burks said it’s treated as any other taunt.

The rule is dumb, but Texas’ impending exit, along with Oklahoma, means the Big 12 will never have to admit it. They can just continue applying it as they see fit until Texas is gone and the so-called taunt becomes the SEC’s non-problem.

And hey, in the extremely unlikely event that one of the remaining Big 12 teams continues to throw up the “horns down” even after Texas is gone, at least there will still be a rule in place to deter such abhorrent behavior.

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Sooners 2022 RB commit flashes ‘Horns Down’ on social media

Four-star running back commit for the class of 2022, Gavin Sawchuk, flashed horns down in front of Kyler Murray’s Lamborghini.

Another day, another Oklahoma commit participating in a tradition like none other, flashing Horns Down. Continue reading “Sooners 2022 RB commit flashes ‘Horns Down’ on social media”