AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas football recruits in attendance for the Longhorns’ 48-45 loss to West Virginia got some extra entertainment out of their night, courtesy of the Mountaineers.
Late in the game Saturday night, a feud began between West Virginia players, including quarterback Geno Smith, and a group of Texas commits and recruits.
“Geno and a few other guys, they were turning around and punking us. I’ve never seen that before,” said Texas wide receiver recruit Jacorey Warrick (Houston/Cypress Falls).
Warrick said he believed the war of words began after Smith fumbled in the fourth quarter, his second of the night.
During games, visiting Texas recruits and their family and friends are seated on the east side of DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium, behind the visiting team’s bench. When Smith returned to the sidelines, the Heisman Trophy frontrunner heard some jeers from the fans seated directly above him.
“There was this one dad who was yelling, “Geno! Geno!” after the turnover,” Warrick said. “He was like, ‘Way to handle the ball, Geno!’ That’s when it kind of started. Geno turned around and said, ‘Have you ever played football before?’ It was crazy.”
Some trash-talking between the recruits and West Virginia players ensued.
“The West Virginia players were talking trash and we were talking trash back,” said Katy (Texas) Seven Lakes offensive line recruit Caleb Benenoch. “They were yelling, throwing the horns down, talking a lot of smack.”
No Texas recruit was more vocal during the feud than A'Shawn Robinson. The Fort Worth (Texas) Arlington Heights defensive tackle commit was sitting in the front row on Saturday night and had plenty to say to Smith.
“West Virginia was talking noise to us, and A’Shawn was defending Texas,” said Texas commit Jake Raulerson (Celina, Texas/Celina).
Before attending Saturday’s game, Robinson had raised some doubts about his pledge to Texas after taking an official visit to Florida State last month.
When sitting among his fellow commits, though, he made his allegiances clear.
“That’s a good sign,” Raulerson said. “He said ‘Geno, I’ll see you next year.’ He was having a great time. I asked him if he was going to come to Texas. He said, ‘Yeah, don’t worry about it.’”
Unfortunately for Robinson, Smith is a senior. He and the Mountaineers got the last laugh and earned the victory, but they didn’t earn many admirers among the section of Texas recruits.
“Not a fan of west Virginia's players, no class at all, almost embarrassing,” Texas receiver commit Jake Oliver (Dallas/Jesuit) wrote on his Twitter account after the game.
Added Warrick: “I didn’t like it. Of all the games I’ve been to at any school, we usually sit behind the visiting team. If something is said to them, they usually don’t respond or anything. That kind of caught me off-guard.”
Though several recruits said they thought the back-and-forth jawing was harmless and funny, the future Longhorns now have some extra motivation when Texas travels to West Virginia in 2013.
HornsNation’s William Wilkerson contributed to this report.