Rodney Terry admonishes UCF players in handshake line following loss: 'That's classless'

After an 11-2 record in non-conference play, Texas is off to a rough start through the first four games of Big 12 play. Wednesday night, the Longhorns dropped to 1-3 with a 77-71 loss to UCF at the Moody Center — and something didn’t sit well with Rodney Terry in the handshake line.

It was initially unclear what caused Terry to yell at UCF players after the game, but he later told reporters players were throwing up the “Horns Down” gesture. He called it “classless” as the teams went through the line.

“That’s classless,” he said. “Don’t do that sh-t. That’s classless. Don’t do that.”

Not sure what was said or happened, but here's #Texas head coach Rodney Terry telling some #UCF players in the handshake line, "That's classless. Don't do that shit." #HookEm pic.twitter.com/XXS3E4zIIB

— Tyler Feldman (@TylerFeldmanTV) January 18, 2024

Afterward, in the postgame press conference, Terry gave a passionate answer about the situation and why he didn’t appreciate the gesture.

“I’m a big believer in you win the right way, you lose the right way,” Terry said. “I always tell my guys whether you win or lose, you win the right way, you lose the right way, you carry yourself the right way. You don’t go to the handshake line or prior to getting to the handshake line and have about six or seven guys putting the horns down. We don’t do that. Because when you do those kinds of things, it looks very classless and it also looks like you were just hoping to win. We never go into games trying to hope to win. We go into games expecting to win. So we don’t act like that. We expect to win.

“We don’t jump up and down like like we won a national championship — we sure don’t step on anyone’s home court deal and act crazy and try to show them up in any way, we don’t do that. So that’s what I was angry about. And I was letting those guys know you don’t do that. You guys won. Hey, we shake your hand, tip our hat to you. But we’re not gonna let you act that way in our building. You’re not gonna do that. You’re not gonna put your horns down and do all that nonsense.”

UCF coach Johnny Dawkins also addressed the situation, saying he would discuss the situation internally. He also acknowledged his relationship with Rodney Terry and Texas assistant Frank Haith, who used to coach at Tulsa.

“That’s not the type of program we run, so if I see that, I will be addressing that personally from my standpoint,” Dawkins said. “I know Coach Terry. He’s a great man, I have a lot of respect for his program. Coach Heath, he and I go way back, coaching against each other in the American. We’re all about having class as a program. So I’ll go back and review what happened, and if there’s any action that needs to be taken from my end from my staff, I will do that.”