Head coach Mark Pope clarifies BYU asked students to remove 'Horns Down' T-shirts
The latest to-do involving Texas and the Horns Down hand sign and slogan involved a group of BYU students wearing shirts spelling out the phrase in the student section at a basketball game on Saturday between the school. The students were asked to remove the shirts or cover them up, which they obliged.
That move spurred plenty of reaction from fans online, either sniping at the Longhorns — head coach Rodney Terry called out UCF for the gesture a few weeks ago — or upset at the gesture from the Cougars fans. Lost in the furor was clarity on who asked the fans to remove the shirts and why.
After the game, BYU head coach Mark Pope said that it was BYU athletics staff that asked the students to remove the shirts or cover them.
“They were taken off before the game started, right?” Pope said. “And from The ROC and our players and our student body, that’s not us. That’s not how we roll. And it was just a miscalculation by just a couple eager kids, which we love the eagerness of these fans, it’s just not what we do here. So we love all 18,000 people in this gym, they were incredible tonight and just so you know, that’s not something we support.”
BYU defeated the Longhorns, 84-72.
Terry recently addressed criticism after his comments
There was a good deal of blowback from Terry’s tirade about Horns Down, and the first-year head coach opened up on some of that in the days that followed.
“There’s always gonna be different things you have to deal with in life,” Terry said. “I think you have controllables in your life in terms of what you’re able to control in terms of what happens. I always tell our guys there’s always consequences to any actions that you may have. I had no intentions of trying to show up anyone or offend anyone in terms of what occurred at the end of that game.
“(UCF coach) Johnny Dawkins is a good friend of mine. He’s a really good coach. He has a good program. They’re having a good year. Personally, if I offended him or his program or anyone for that matter, that was not my intention. I’m a God-fearing man. I lean heavily on my faith and there are no obstacles in front of me that I can’t ever overcome because God never leaves me no matter in good times, bad times. He’s always with me. So I think again, you control what you can control.”
Texas had rebounded well from the UCF loss, which sparked the initial Horns Down saga. The team had won back-to-back games over ranked Baylor and Oklahoma squads before losing on Saturday.