Texas lost a 38-35 thriller to Oklahoma State on Saturday, a loss that sent the Longhorns tumbling down the polls and possibly cost them a shot at the College Football Playoff.
Much of the postgame coverage centered on Mike Gundy’s interpretation of Twitter debate as, well, fart noises:
Mike Gundy has a message about Twitter criticism: pic.twitter.com/kOBzr9xaWM
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) October 28, 2018
In many cases, he’s not wrong!
But there was actually another example of Twitter criticism stirring the pot from that very same game, as former Longhorn linebacker (and current ESPN analyst) Emmanuel Acho took to Twitter to vent his own frustrations with the Texas performance. Specifically, he seemed to be zeroing in on the play of cornerback Kris Boyd, who was among a few players suspended at the start of the game after being late to meetings.
So #Texas benches their 2 starting CB’s for the 1st Q. & allows 260 yds in that quarter to #OkState. 2nd most in last 15 years. Texas MUST to find another way to discipline in the future.
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) October 28, 2018
Bruh, you can’t be late to meetings THEN come out here and get mossed. Your team needs you. #Texas #OkState
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) October 28, 2018
I can’t watch this dude play defense anymore. It’s actually trash.
If you know. You know. #Texas— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) October 28, 2018
There were more. As SportsDay pointed out, a few current players took issue with Acho’s tone,:
Bad ball is bad ball bro. I PRAISE y’all nationally every chance I get… I criticize the play, NEVER the player. https://t.co/LRLdX7OOXa
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) October 28, 2018
It’s hard to take “I can’t watch this dude play defense anymore. It’s actually trash.” as anything other than a personal criticism, though, right? Kris Boyd certainly thought so, as he took to Instagram for a response:
Acho addressed the criticism with another post, though it certainly wasn’t an apology:
Longhorn family and fans: pic.twitter.com/VCgAWwyr95
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) October 28, 2018
Acho’s point that he can’t simply not be critical of Texas is an important one. And as we’ve seen with the Kirk Herbstreit backlash, there are few things college football fans (and players) hate more than someone who went to their school being critical of their team. Acho’s in an unenviable position, as he noted, where anything good he says about Texas is seen as homerism, and anything negative is seen as a betrayal.
But at the same time, it’s tough to take the neutral observer stance when your thoughts are so clearly influenced by your connection to the team. There’s nothing wrong with that, necessarily, either; analysts are human, too, and it’s better to be up front about allegiances than not.
An ESPN analyst calling a college player’s performance “trash”, though, is a rough look, even if Acho truly was trying to separate the performance from the player.
