AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Georgia coach Kirby Smart was initially careful with his words when asked about Texas fans littering the north end of the field with water bottles and other trash after an interception for the top-ranked Longhorns was briefly wiped out by a pass-interference penalty before officials changed their call.
“I won’t comment because I want to respect the wishes of the SEC office,” Smart first said when asked about the disruption during the fifth-ranked Bulldogs’ 30-15 victory Saturday night. “But I will say now we have a precedent that if you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes, that you’ve got a chance to get your call reversed.”
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The Southeastern Conference released a statement early Sunday that said officials made the proper decision with no penalty on the play with 3:12 left in the third quarter. There was contact between cornerback Jahdae Barron and receiver Arian Smith before the pick.
“The game officials gathered to discuss the play, which is permitted to ensure the proper penalty is enforced, at which time the calling official reported that he erred, and a foul should not have been called for defensive pass interference,” the statement read.
But the league said the disruption caused by the debris on the field would be reviewed related to SEC sportsmanship policies and procedures.
“While the original evaluation and assessment of the penalty was not properly executed, it is unacceptable to have debris thrown on the field at any time,” the league said.
After finding the officials made the correct call, the SEC penalized the Longhorns for the interruption Sunday after review; Texas will be fined $250,000 and must meet requirements assigned by SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.
Those requirements include using available resources to find and suspend fans that threw debris on the field or at Georgia’s sideline, reviewing alcohol availability policies and providing a report of the school’s findings to the SEC.
The SEC hasn’t suspended Texas’ alcohol sales, but can if the Longhorns don’t meet their requirements.
“The throwing of debris and resulting interruption of play that took place Saturday night cannot be part of any SEC event,” Sankey said in Sunday’s release. “The SEC is assigned responsibility by its membership to enforce its sportsmanship and game management policies and these actions are consistent with that oversight responsibility, including the financial penalty and mandated reviews.”
Texas issued a joint statement from Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife, President Jay Hartzell and athletic director Chris Del Conte that condemned the bottle-throwing and apologized to Georgia players and staff, the SEC and game officials.
“This type of behavior will not be tolerated,” the statement said. “We are committed to fostering a positive environment for all participants, teams, officials, and fans, and we will take steps to ensure that this type of behavior does not happen again.”
Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian was irate at officials for the call that had appeared to take away Barron’s 36-yard interception return to the Georgia 9. The coach then headed toward the far corner of the field, signaling to the student section to settle down and quit throwing things.
“I understand the frustration,” Sarkisian said. “We all were frustrated in the moment. But, you know ... all of Longhorn Nation, I know we can be better than that.”
As the debris was being removed, officials were discussing the play and picked up the flag.
Smart was then protesting to official Matt Loeffler, who the coach said told him that the initial penalty was called on the wrong guy.
“It took him a long time to realize that,” said Smart, who was then asked who was the right guy. “I guess the offensive guy. You know, 11 (Smith) and 7 (Barron), two distinct numbers. I don’t know in all of my coaching career if I’ve ever seen that happen that way.”
Sarkisian said the officials never told him why the call was changed.
Two plays after the reversal, Quinn Ewers threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Jaydon Blue to get the Longhorns to 23-15 after they had trailed 23-0 at halftime.
“We were able to get that stopped and get that kind of taken care of and then regroup,” Sarkisian said of the disruption. “Then they overturned that call, gave us an opportunity to get a short field and punch one in and close it to a one-score game.”
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