COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — When David Sills flashed the horns down in front of 100,000-plus fans at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium last November after catching a 60-yard touchdown, he started a movement that even he probably didn’t realize would become a rallying cry for West Virginia fans.
Sills was penalized for flashing the hand signal, which caused controversy about why Texas’ opponents aren’t allowed to do it, but the Longhorns are allowed to flash “Hook ’em Horns.’ Former WVU coach Dana Holgorsen fanned the flames after the Mountaineers’ 42-41 thrilling win when he said his staff asked the officials before the game and they said it wouldn’t be flagged.
Will Grier was flagged later when he horns-downed the crowd after scoring the go-ahead 2-point conversion late in the fourth quarter.
Since that game, horns down has become a trash-talking favorite for WVU fans, along the same lines as a popular chant they make toward Pitt about the Panthers’ choice in meals.
Upside down flags, car decals and T-shirts featuring Texas’ logo have been spotted throughout Morgantown for months. Even someone inside the WVU football facility put the Texas game upside down on the Mountaineers’ schedule during spring camp.
But the real question is, why? Why has Texas become the school WVU fans have latched on to to be the next they hate? Morgantown and Austin, Texas, are nearly 1,400 miles away from each other. Before West Virginia joined the Big 12 in 2012, there was almost no connection between either program — there was one previous game in the series during the 1940s and neither recruited the same area.
There are quite a few reasons the Mountaineer fan base wants to make this a rivalry, but the biggest is cause and effect from conference realignment. Whether you like it or not, the landscape of college football was drastically changed earlier this decade during the latest major wave of realignment, and no one may have been affected more than West Virginia.
The annual series with Pitt was gone, as were established series with other Big East schools like Syracuse and Louisville. In the mid-2000s, rivalries with Virginia Tech and Miami were also lost.
So when WVU joined the Big 12, it was the outcast that no one knew anything about. Geographically, the Mountaineers were the black sheep.
But WVU fans at heart love to hate others nearly as much as it love the Mountaineers. They desperately wanted to find a rival within the Big 12, but needed an excuse to pick one.
“I think that we just have a really passionate fan base and they really don’t like other teams,” WVU linebacker and Morgantown native Shea Campbell said. “I think they’ve taken a tendency to really not liking Texas. And that’s completely understandable. A lot of people have opinions about Texas and a lot of them are negative, so it makes sense to me.”
Oklahoma and the Longhorns are the class of the conference, but West Virginia has yet to beat the Sooners (0-7) and quite frankly, only one of those games has been close. It’s hard to call someone a rival when you can’t beat them.
But take Texas — West Virginia owns the series 4-3 since 2012, including several thrillers in Morgantown and Austin, and it all came to a head last season.
Fan favorites Sills and Grier flashed horns down in a national televised game, and it ended up being one of the last positive memories in what was a lackluster finish for the Mountaineers.
The Longhorns inadvertently added fuel to the fire after that game. Coach Tom Herman complained about Grier taunting prior to crossing the goal line on the 2-point play, and star quarterback Sam Ehlinger tweeted, “I remember every single team/player that disrespects the rich tradition of the University of Texas by putting the horns down. Do not think it will be forgotten in the future.”
Ehlinger will get his chance at payback today when Texas plays at Milan Puskar Stadium, almost guaranteed to be created by 60,000-plus WVU fans flashing the hand gesture at every possible opportunity.
Younger WVU fans, especially students, have been raised on the Mountaineers playing in the Big 12. Older fans, like it or not, have to accept that the new generation doesn’t know what it’s like to play Pitt every year around Thanksgiving, or to play Virginia Tech under the lights.
The hate you have for those schools are what they feel toward Texas, and horns down is the easiest way to show that hate.
But unlike last year, don’t expect the Mountaineers to flaunt it, at least on the field.
“I’d rather build up West Virginia than tear anybody else down,” WVU coach Neal Brown said.
Senior offensive lineman Colton McKivitz also doesn’t expect the team to do it, but he knows it won’t have to.
“I’m sure there will be enough people doing it on Saturday that we shouldn’t have to worry about doing it,” he said.
