Texas Tech football: Kingsbury instructs team to refrain from Horns down

Tuesday, Texas Tech football head coach said that he has instructed his team to regain from using the Horns down hand signal this week as the Red Raiders host the Texas Longhorns.

The Texas Tech football team will be at the center of one of the most ridiculous college football controversies in recent memory this week when the Texas Longhorns come to Lubbock.  Tuesday, Kliff Kingsbury told reporters that he has instructed his players to refrain from using the Horns down hand signal after West Virginia wide receiver David Sills and quarterback Will Grier were penalized for the gesture last week in Austin.

"“We addressed it last year when we had a costly penalty doing that last year on the road, and you can’t do that against a quality football team and cost yourself 15 yards on a kickoff.” Kingsbury said. “So we won’t be doing that.”"

The penalty Kingsbury is referring to was assessed to Texas Tech wide receiver T.J. Vasher who flashed the upside down Hook ‘Em Horns hand signal to the crowd after scoring a touchdown in the Red Raiders 27-24 win last season.  The infraction results in a 15-yard penalty that is assessed on the ensuing kickoff.

This seemingly innocuous issues has received national attention this week after Sills and Grier were flagged for the same gesture last week in West Virginia’s 42-41 win over the Longhorns.   This penalty falls under the very objective definition of taunting, but not to all officials.

For decades, Teams have been flashing the Horns down when playing Texas, most notably by Oklahoma players in the Red River Rivalry game, with no flags being thrown.  But when players like Vasher or Sills are flagged for the gesture, many fans see it as preferential treatment towards the Longhorns by Big 12 officials.  It also doesn’t help that the two most recent incidences of the gesture being flagged occurred in Austin causing many fans to insist that the officials were trying to placate the home crowd.

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Adding more fuel to the conspiracy theory fire were the post-game comments of West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen who indicated the officials had told him that the gesture would not be grounds for a penalty flag. 

But keeping this issue alive has been the petulant responses of a number of Texas players and coaches.

"“We don’t disrespect any other schools by throwing the signs down or anything like that,” Said Texas wide receiver Lil Jordan Humphrey.  “It bothers us a lot because…we take pride in what we do for that logo…it really pisses me off and a lot of guys off.”"

Meanwhile, UT quarterback Sam Ehlinger took to twitter to threaten payback to anyone who disrespected his school in a tweet that sounded like something that should be coming from a member of a crime syndicate rather than a college football team.

Even Texas head coach Tom Herman spoke out about the gesture saying that Grier’s game-winning two-point conversion should have been negated when he flashed the horns down before crossing the goal line.  However, whether Grier actually used the gesture before crossing the goal line is debatable and how one sees it likely depends on if you are a Texas fan or not.

Herman is not the first Texas coach to weigh in on this issue.  In 2012, former Texas head coach Mack Brown voiced his displeasure of the Horns down  showing that this is an issue that has ruffled burnt orange feathers for quite some time.

But as far as Texas Tech is concerned, Kingsbury is correct in his assertion that it is an unnecessary action.  This week’s game is likely to be a very close contest as have been most of the recent games between the Red Raiders and the Longhorns.

Therefore, it would be unwise to gift Texas an extra 15 yards of field position for a momentary jab at the Longhorns.  Besides, if you win the game, you can flash the Horns Down with pride for the next twelve months.