B/R
Kevin Durant isn’t giving up on his school.
The former Texas basketball star reacted to the Longhorns’ first loss of the 2024 college football season by taking to social media and saying his team will “bounce back” from the 30-15 defeat to the Georgia Bulldogs:
Texas entered Saturday’s game with a 6-0 record and the No. 1 ranking in the country with victories over Michigan and Oklahoma already secured.
While those wins over the Wolverines and Sooners haven’t aged as well as they would in a typical season for those programs, the Longhorns still have the cushion to survive a loss to Georgia in the era of the 12-team College Football Playoff. And Texas A&M is the only ranked team remaining on their schedule, so they could secure a spot in the SEC Championship Game just by taking care of business against overmatched opponents.
Still, Saturday was an opportunity to make a national statement against one of the powerhouses in their new conference.
Instead, it was the Bulldogs making the statement by jumping out to a commanding 23-0 halftime lead. Texas trimmed the deficit to 23-15 in the third quarter, but Trevor Etienne gave Georgia some breathing room again with the final touchdown of the game in the fourth.
Etienne scored three touchdowns on the ground as the star of the game.
More than just the result stood out, as Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian temporarily replaced starting quarterback Quinn Ewers with Arch Manning with the hope the latter would provide a spark. He didn’t, and the Longhorns turned back to Ewers in the second half.
There was also controversy in the third quarter when a pass interference penalty temporarily wiped out a Texas interception. Fans responded by throwing water bottles and trash on the field, and the officials eventually changed the penalty call.
“I won’t comment because I want to respect the wishes of the SEC office,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart told reporters after the game. “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.”
The SEC released a statement that said, in part, “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 play didn’t cost Georgia the victory, but it could serve as a backdrop if there was a rematch in the SEC Championship Game.
If there is, Durant will certainly be tuning in and cheering for his Longhorns after he took home the Wooden and Naismith Awards as a consensus All-American during his one season of college basketball at Texas in 2006-07.
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