A huge controversy swept the college basketball world, no the entire globe, this week when UCF players dared to do the “Horns Down” hand gesture after beating the Longhorns in Austin. As we all know, anytime a human being flashes “Horns Down” it immediately sends the entire state of Texas into a state of emergency.
With absolutely no self-awareness over how silly it is to get offended over an upside down longhorn head, Texas basketball head coach Rodney Terry actually confronted UCF basketball players over it in the postgame handshake line. Then he doubled down and called it “very classless” during his postgame press conference. It’s a a shock Jalen McMilan doing it during the College Football Playoff didn’t launch a full scale riot.
Here's what #Texas head coach Rodney said happened in the handshake line with #UCF:
"About 6 or 7 guys putting the horns down. We don't do that because when you do those kinds of things, it looks very classless."#HookEm | @KVUE pic.twitter.com/qV0nVNgb24
— Tyler Feldman (@TylerFeldmanTV) January 18, 2024
Plenty of college athletics commentators and fans jumped on Terry’s comments as being overly dramatic with the dominant reaction being that the school probably isn’t ready for the competition and intensity of the SEC if a hand gesture is going to get them this worked up. Among them was Fox college football analyst Joel Klatt. He wrote in part in a message on X, “Being offended by Horns Down is soft… Why are people so eager to be offended these days.”
Being offended by Horns Down is soft…Why are people so eager to be offended these days…Don't pay attention to what others say about you!! The only thing you have total control over is your own effort level…that's it!
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) January 19, 2024
Thankfully for Klatt, he won’t have to hear it from Texas fans all season about any grudge involving their school because the Longhorns will be playing on ESPN and not Fox after their SEC move.
The more Texas coaches, players, and fans are overly sensitive about “Horns Down,” the more others are going to pile on because of how offended they appear to be by the gesture. At least football coach Steve Sarkisian seems to get that. Of course, maybe Terry wasn’t just being too sensitive. Maybe he was just being a sore loser after blowing a 12 point halftime lead and losing at home to the Knights.
