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PROVO — The silent trash-talking — one of the better examples of an oxymoron — apparently was not the way BYU students should roll.
A few of those wacky kids in the student section donned T-shirts that read "horns down" for BYU's Big 12 basketball game against Texas last weekend in the Marriott Center. Horns down, which was spelled out in individual letters on the shirts by nine students standing in the front row along the baseline, is a dig at the longstanding Texas rally of horns up.
Unprompted by the Texas coach or anyone associated with the Longhorns, BYU officials told the students to remove the shirts. They did and no one was harmed by the incident.
And you thought Utah fans were classless, in the infamous words of former BYU quarterback Max Hall more than a decade ago. Caught up in the aftermath of a heated rivalry game, Hall apologized several hours later and the world moved on.
The remarks, whether true or not, go down in the lore along with several statements and actions in one of the great rivalries in college football. To a degree, both sides can at least force a chuckle about it now.
This one isn't near as serious, but BYU took no chances even if it wasn't controversial. The school has its reasons.
The Cougars beat Texas in thrilling fashion, increasing their chances of making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years. Concluding the postgame media session, on his own, coach Mark Pope addressed the situation.
"That's not how we roll," he said. "It was just a miscalculation on (the part of) a couple of eager kids, which we love the eagerness of these fans. It's just not what we do here. We love all 18,000 people in this gym; they were incredible tonight. Just so you know, that is not something we are supporting."
As silly and harmless as it appeared, given all the nasty stuff that is said and done virtually every week at sporting events around the world at many levels, BYU's responses are not a surprise. A faith-based institution that is known to take a few negative hits, BYU goes to great lengths to always present a positive image.
That image took a major hit in August 2022 when a Duke volleyball player, who was Black, asserted she was called multiple racial slurs during a match against BYU at the Smith Fieldhouse. The alleged incident drew widespread attention, as local and national media were quick to condemn it.
Several days later, a BYU investigation reported: "We have not found any evidence to corroborate the allegation that fans engaged in racial heckling or uttered racial slurs at the event." Before the finding was released, a USA columnist professed his belief in the accusation and detailed multiple examples of racial issues in the state and also involving the University of Utah and the Utah Jazz.
The writer, rightly aware of the institution's issues with race in the past, concluded "BYU will clear BYU of wrongdoing. They will bury this story because they have a vested interest in it not being true."
South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley believed it, prompting her to cancel a home-and-home series with BYU. The two-time national championship coach "did not want to put her players in that situation."
True or not, significant damage was done.
With its strict honor code and annual ranking as one of the top sober universities, BYU has long stood out among the crowd. Deserved or not, the institution can be perceived as having the proverbial "holier than thou" attitude that gnaws at critics.
Feel free to say BYU officials overreacted to a benign incident that apparently didn't much rankle the Texas contingent. But excuse their sensitivity.
