Last week the No.1-ranked Texas suffered a 15-30 loss to Georgia in a game that was never really that close.
Many see the loss as a wakeup call for the Longhorns, who just this year joined the SEC, the most competitive conference in college football.
But there’s another reason that game’s been on the minds of Texas and college football writ large, and it doesn’t have much to do with the rankings.
Eric Henry is a Texas beat writer for 247Sports and he joined the Standard to discuss. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: The University of Texas was fined $250,000 because fans threw trash on the field during last Saturday’s game. Remind us what happened there.
Eric Henry: Yeah, it was a really bizarre situation.
So what happened was Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron was assessed a penalty for pass interference on a play that looked pretty clear that he didn’t commit the foul. When the replay was shown in the stadium, Texas fans were incensed – most notably, the student section – and trash rained down from the field. Plastic bottles, cups, things of that nature.
It actually stopped the game to where Georgia was set to run a play and had Georgia run that play, the penalty couldn’t have been reviewed. But once that stoppage occurred, the referees did concur and review the play and actually overturned it and gave the ball to Texas.
But with that happening, it violated SEC bylaws. It actually states in the bylaws of the league that any alcoholic beverages thrown at any athletic event will result in a fine. And the $250,000 fine is the largest since Tennessee was assessed a $100,000 fine for rushing the field years back.
Yeah, it was not a good look for Texas, that’s for sure. And I remember the Texas coach running out there on the field, waving his arms frantically – “stop, stop!” What about the school? How did they respond to all this?
Well, I mean, the leadership – whether it’s President Jay Hartzell, or Kevin Eltife, or head coach Steve Sarkisian – all responded in kind of unison saying that, “Hey, that’s not who Longhorn Nation is and we want to act accordingly in terms of not incurring any further fines.”
Because what is interesting, again, in the bylaws is, should this happen again, the conference has the right to suspend alcohol privileges, and that certainly would not go over well with the folks who come out to DKR.
Now, going into last week’s game, UT was ranked No. 1 in the nation. Then you had this bad loss to Georgia. What went wrong in that game, do you think?
Quite frankly, just got outplayed by a better team.
I mean, I think it starts with Steve Sarkisian. People could make the argument that he was out-game-planned and out-schemed, but they didn’t get great play at the quarterback position, especially early with Quinn Ewers.
The offense really struggled to run the football and the defense, try as they might, really in the second half kept getting put in bad situations because of the offensive ineptitude and eventually Georgia was able to break through.
And Arch Manning was actually called out on the field before the half, as I recall.
That is correct. And what made that unique is Steve Sarkisian has been very adamant that he would not make an in-game switch. For three years that he and Quinn Ewers have been together, he’s never benched Quinn Ewers in a game that he couldn’t finish – outside of injury.
So that made that a very unique situation.
Heading into this weekend, the Longhorns ranked No. 5 and now go against Vanderbilt. How do you think this one’s going to shake out?
Vanderbilt is a surprising 5-2 team. You’re talking about a program that perennially is among the bottom dwellers of the Southeastern Conference, but they’ve been spearheaded by a couple of transfer players – most notably quarterback Diego Pavia.
How I see this one shaking out: While Vandy is a scrappy team, they have a really unique style of playing football. They like to run the football and keep the clock running, keep the ball from the opponent. Texas has so much on the line in terms of national championship hopes. And quite frankly, they are the better team.
If they have any chance of really getting back to being a No. 1 team in the nation and contending for a national title, they need a win on Saturday. I think they’ll do that in a decisive fashion.
