Speaking strictly for myself, if I see the refs throw a flag against Georgia should a player flash the horns down sign, I’m gonna be one POed Dawg fan.
Opponents have been known to flip that sign to a “horns down,” the equivalent of a Georgia player taking Florida’s Gator Chomp and doing it after a big Bulldog play.
The Big 12 frowned on horns down. So much so that Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said before the league title game against the Longhorns that a player doing a “horns down” would draw a penalty, according to the Norman Transcript.
The Big 12 said that an “unsportsmanlike act,” by rule, is subject to a penalty.
“That was a weird deal,” Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray said days after the Sooners beat Texas in the Big 12 championship game. “I wasn’t going to waste my time doing it anyway during the game. After the game have at it. I don’t know. For them to make it a penalty was pretty ridiculous.”
Georgia safety J.R. Reed, who hails from Frisco, Texas, saw plenty of Hook’Em Horn gestures growing up. He was asked if he’s practiced the horns down.
“I don’t know if that’s a flag for this game,” he said. “I think that’s only a Big 12 rule so I’ve got to find that out….I’m going to find out and learn my rules so I don’t get a flag.”
Here’s the answer from Wright Waters, the executive director of the Football Bowl Association:
“It is a judgment call,” Waters said. “Remember when kids were giving the throat slash action? For a long time it was called different by different conferences until finally there was a national standard.”
The issue is taunting if an official feels a player is taunting by doing it, they will probably call it. But purely a judgment call.”
Hey, Wright, how do you have a “national standard” for a signal that’s directed at a single school? Asking for SEC refs who’ve been just fine flagging teams for the Gator chomp.
They’ve got a Pac-12 crew calling the Sugar Bowl, so that doesn’t exactly give me room for comfort.
I agree that players should wait till the game is over. Be a class act during the game and don’t give the west coast weed-head refs any excuse to shaft us. Just put an SEC woodshed beating on them, then after the game have at it. Fans however, are exempt. They can do what they want. Be classy, defense: after you plant the QB in the ground, offer him a hand back on his feet. Holyfield; after you truck that LB, help him back to his feet. GO DAWGS!!!!!!!!!! Beat these TX shit-kickers like we did Tech.
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Penn Wagers is waiting on line 2…
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It’s not necessarily the Pac-12 refs on the field we need to worry about … It’s the replay booth officials who are bloody awful. Lots of replays missed this year all over the country but the left coast examples are the absolute worst.
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Unsportsmanlike conduct isn’t called from the replay booth.
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I’m guessing he meant really bad replay reviews in general from the Pac12 HQ.
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The Pac 12 had that item, where the league office HQ stepped in and made a ruling on a targeting call. Since that time and the blowback. That being said, pac 12 official suck-but should make no difference in this game as the suck so bad-either team is screwed.
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forgot to add: since that time and the blowback-the league office has stayed out of things.
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This whole thing is ridiculous. How can an act committed by one team be ok but a penalty for the other.
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And that is the essential point we need to focus this discussion on. If you interpret the “anti-symbol” as a rebuttal to the original gesture, both have to be viewed as taunting, or neither. It is no different from the Gaytor chomp, which is more a taunt than extending the ball toward an opposing player while running for a TD. SEC schools should demand a tit-for-tat rule for the chomp in the Spring meetings, and Shaw should be required to explain why they have been treated differently all these years.
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Absolutely!
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COULD NOT AGREE MORE!
Timmy did it with impunity but opposing players were flagged for it.
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Wonder what the cost is on a 10% buy in on the refs from the pac 12, or would that be 12%
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Well played. They must have gone to the Reggie Ball School of Math.
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Ugh the PAC routinely has the worst Refs.
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Will they get a call from the PAC 12 commissioners office to overrule a call?
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A 15 yarder is not gonna decide this game. But we’re generally a workmanlike team that avoids dumb shit.
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Man..I’m jealous.
We need a common hand gesture to do as Dawg fans.
Make a fist with your left hand, open your right hand to simulate a Bulldog’s open mouth and clamp it down on the left fist. This signifies a Bulldawg clamping down on the opponents nut sack. Repeat until the camera moves off of you. “Bite their balls, Bulldawgs!”
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Bhahahaha!!
Man I should be too old for dumb adolescent jokes but I am busting my gut over here!
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Ok. Cool. Fuck’em. My two favorite teams since moving to Texas in ‘91 have been our Dawgs and whoever is playing UT. They are an insufferable lot who continue to act as if college football dominance is their birthright. Kind of like Bama without the championships.
Senator…is your headline a “Patriot” reference? If so….cool.
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Do you live in Austin? I can see how it might be a bit much. Living in Houston, it’s more muted. I’ve always thought the Aggies were the insufferable bunch. At least Texas has had gridiron success. The Aggies have next to nothing.
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Aggie fans rock! Texas fans are like the wine and cheese fans of UNC to me, arrogant and insufferable is the right characterization. But they are harmless, just over bloated on steershit.
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18 years in the heart of the beast, so I’m biased. I actually enjoy the TT folks since they’ve got their colors right. Didn’t like A&M, but now that they are in the SEC brotherhood and a potential foil to the Alabama franchises, I’m sort of with them.
Off topic: a little surprised they dumped Applewhite at UH. Do they really think they should be part of the FBS elite?
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I live in Houston too and second this. Texas men are generally adults, interesting, and have something else going on beyond their college identity. A&M alumni are so lathered up on their traditions, it just comes across as amateur. It’s an all-consuming identity with their rings, “sawed-off” Horns car decals, square-toed cowboy boots, etc.
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Nothing to worry about here, after last nights showing.
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