The Texas Longhorns are a team everybody loves to hate — but why, exactly? | Opinion

AUSTIN – The question stumped Texas players.

It elicited shrugs, head shakes and a bit of confusion, to be frank.

So, why does everybody hate Texas?

“I honestly don’t know,” a befuddled Longhorns tailback Bijan Robinson said this week.

Of course, they don’t come more likable than Robinson, who gets along with everybody so it’s no surprise that he doesn’t get it.

“I guess the brand,” he said. “It’s like the Cowboys and the Dodgers. They’re teams people don’t like.”

Don’t leave out the Yankees and maybe the Patriots.

“I have no idea why,” offensive tackle Christian Jones said. “Are they jealous? Oh, I’m not saying that.”

Well, Oklahoma has won more of late, winning six of the last seven in the series although Texas has a 62-50-5 all-time edge on the crimson and cream.

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Texas’ Chris Adimora celebrates with fans as an Oklahoma State fan does the horns down during a game against Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020.

The brand is one huge reason for the raging dislike. Or envy. As Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said, “We’re the flagship school of the state.”

The fact Texas has won big is another. Historically speaking, we’re talking about.

Both teams have won 931 games in their history — good for a tie for fourth on the all-time victories list — but OU has more Big 12 championships than Texas (14 to 3), more Heisman Trophy winners (7 to 2) and more College Football Playoff appearances (4 to 0). But no one is more hated than the Longhorns.

And if you ask Texas fans, they kind of like it.

Even head coach Steve Sarkisian, who will try to get his first win over OU on Saturday, has recognized that and he’s been in town less than two years. He saw it firsthand in Fayetteville and was expecting it — and got it — in Lubbock two weeks ago. Beforehand, he acknowledged it and said his staff and team would “embrace the hate.”

Perfect for a bumper sticker.

Another reason is the arrogance that is Texas grads’ birthright. I do remember when former coach John Mackovic was fired for being too arrogant, which I didn’t know was possible. But I guess there are limits to everything.

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Another big factor is the very recognizable hand gesture, which very few other teams have and which many opponents return in kind with hand gestures of their own. Yeah, hook this, Texas foes say. It bemuses most.

Del Conte and Sarkisian are right when they say they’re just renting space in the heads of the opponents. Hard to argue that premise.

I did like Sark’s reaction the week leading up to the Texas Tech game when he was asked about the raucous atmosphere he expected at Jones AT&T Stadium. There weren’t just tortillas flying through the West Texas air that Saturday, but a whole lot of vulgar chants from the student body. It did not go unnoticed by the Texas faction.

I choose to ask the Big 12 officiating supervisor every July at Big 12 media days to clear up any ambiguity concerning the Horns Down, and he always says it’s a judgment call. Interestingly enough, no opposing player has been flagged for a Horns Down this season or last season. Nada.

Maybe you caught last year’s NCAA baseball super regional at East Carolina when I believe everyone in Greenville, N.C., was showing off their downward Horns in that highly contested three-game series that Texas won. You’d have thought the Aggies had invaded the stadium.

“It doesn’t bother me,” Texas baseball coach David Pierce said. “It proves we are always on their minds.”

Texas Longhorns defensive back Chris Brown (15) celebrates with fans as he sports the Golden Hat during an NCAA college football game at the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas Texas on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018. Texas Longhorns beat Oklahoma Sooners 48-45 [RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL/AMERICAN-STATESMAN]

Pierce still recalls the weekend and the animosity before the series even began.

“Two really young kids definitely stood out,” he said. “No shoes, no shirt, cut off jeans, snow cone faces and (flashing) the Horns Down as we got off the bus. No way they could have been over the age of 6.”

They learn early, David.

The follow-up to that is the B part of the question.

Why does Texas receive more hate than Oklahoma for disrupting the Big 12? Or is that just a myth?

That’s a bit of a stickler.

Del Conte’s not on board with that premise. He thinks there’s plenty of divisiveness to go around. Texas isn’t hated more.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that,” Del Conte said, thinking the hate is equally divided except in numbers. “It’s just where you’re located. I’m assuming Oklahoma is getting a lot of the same conversations. It always depends where you are. After all, there are 30 million people in our state. And there are four million people in Oklahoma.”

Then it would stand to reason that non-Sooners fans would have to ante up more and hate just a little more vocally to make up the difference. After all, the two schools are leaving the Big 12 in tandem, so unilateral hate would just be, well, uneven. Besides of those 30 million Texans, I’d guess half or more are Aggies or Red Raiders or Bears and add to the Texas hate.

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione gets it, but as for which side gets the most abuse, he said, “It depends on which focus group you are talking to. Sometimes you’ve got to hate the other one to be supportive of your own team.”

Asked if he’s ever flashed the Horns Down, Castiglione said, “If I have, it’s been rare. I certainly don’t go around doing it.”

So I asked some impartial Okies about the hate.

Oklahoman columnist Jenni Carlson disputes the premise of one-sided hate.

“In my neck of the woods, it’s safe to say OU gets way more of the disdain than Texas,” she said. “But more broadly? It’s probably true that Texas gets more of the angst because of the number of schools that got rankled by Texas and ultimately decided to leave the Big 12. The Sooners have been the bully on the field, but it’s the boardroom strong-arming that brings the hate for the Horns.”

She’s correct about that.

Of course, college football rivalries are expected to bring out some good ol’ fashioned hate so long as it’s not over the top. It’s not exactly anything new for Longhorns players. They’ve become accustomed to it.

Another factor that spawned a lot of Texas hate, of course, was the Longhorn Network, something no other program in the nation has and Texas does. It has the receipt of $15 million a year to prove it.

In many corners, LHN is to blame for chasing away Nebraska and Texas A&M among others. Of course, the fact the Longhorns beat the Cornhuskers almost every time they play them has something to do with it. And Texas leading the movement to get rid of partial qualifiers — a Nebraska staple — figured in as well.

The Aggies didn’t really need a reason. They started out mad. The Longhorn Network was just the latest excuse. And don’t forget DeLoss Dodds offered to go in halfsies with A&M on the network, but Bill Byrne said no.

Aggies also fault Dodds for wanting to end the rivalry, but to be perfectly fair, the Longhorns weren’t the ones leaving the conference back then. A&M was.

Simply put, A&M went to greener pastures, went to escape Texas’ shadow as little brother and correctly set out to blaze its own trial and market itself as the only SEC team in the state of Texas. It certainly worked as the Aggies’ recruiting cachet went through the roof — still has — even though the team’s performance of late has them closer to the basement.

Maybe Texas will find a new level of hate in the SEC.

My Aggie friends delight in the likely animosity and wrath the Longhorns will feel from Baton Rouge to Athens. Not that it will be anything new. The Sooners will hear the rage as well.

And for the first year anyway, if not longer, both parties will hear that famous chant that will be meant to taunt. “S-E-C! S-E-C!” is how it goes.

Hopefully there will be enough hate to go around.

Robinson, however, remains mystified. Of course, he’s an Arizonan by birth.

“Having Oklahoma fans scream at us, you feel hated,” he said. “I was looking at one OU fan and he said, ‘Don’t look at me.’ OK. I don’t know what we’ve done that would make anybody hate us. But if you hate us, good for us. I’ll let the haters keep on hating. I’ll just do me.”

It at least shows they, uh, care.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas Longhorns football is most hated; Oklahoma week raises intensity