Read the scathing letter UT President Jay Hartzell sent to students about the debris-throwing incident

On Sunday evening, as the fallout from the debris that disrupted Saturday's game between the Texas Longhorns and Georgia Bulldogs for four minutes in Austin continued, UT President Jay Hartzell sent a scathing letter to students after the school's SEC imposed a $250,000 fine and ordered the university to identify the students responsible and ban them from all athletics events for the remainder of the 2024-25 year.

Dear students,

In the midst of a special weekend for our university and the Longhorn Nation, our football game against the University of Georgia was marred by a deeply disappointing moment that had nothing to do with the outcome of the game. I am reaching out to all UT students to deliver a message that will be unwelcome to some but necessary.

Throwing debris onto the field for any reason, including expressing displeasure at an officiating call, poses a safety risk to everyone on the field and is completely unacceptable behavior. Towards the end of the third quarter, a significant number of our students endangered others and embarrassed Longhorn Nation by throwing bottles and trash onto the field. This was only our third conference game as a new member of the SEC, so our SEC colleagues are just getting to know us. These actions initially left a poor impression on Georgia and our new conference colleagues and damaged your university's reputation before a national audience.

It has taken us decades to build our reputation, typically one of sportsmanship and excellence, but it can be significantly tarnished in a few moments. You can learn similar lessons from your time at UT that will serve you well after you graduate. We must take action to protect the safety of others and the hard-earned status we all enjoy as part of this great institution.

Accordingly, this incident triggered several reactions from university officials and the SEC. Today I sent a joint message with UT System Chairman Kevin Eltife and UT Director of Athletics Chris Del Conte thanking the University of Georgia, the SEC and our entire fan base for this display sorry for bad sportsmanship. Additionally, I have contacted the President of the University of Georgia to apologize directly for this unfortunate incident. As a result of these actions, the SEC will also impose a fine of $250,000 on us.

The University of Texas will use all available resources to identify those who threw debris onto the field and will revoke those students' ticket privileges for all sporting events for the remainder of this academic year. Although such review is necessary due to the penalties imposed by the SEC, we agree with this approach as it is the correct course of action. We will not tolerate any behavior that is entirely inconsistent with our University’s commitment to conduct ourselves as a community of responsible leaders.

At UT, we take great pride in doing the right thing and taking responsibility for our actions. We love the passion that sports inspire in our fans, but the combination of passion and frustration went too far in this case. We have two more home football games to show that we can conduct ourselves as befits one of the best universities in the country and a member of the SEC. I expect all UT students to behave accordingly out of respect for your classmates, your university and the Longhorns everywhere.

Best regards

Jay Hartzell

president

The incident was in response to a pass interference penalty against Texas super-senior cornerback Jahdae Barron that initially negated an interception and a long return at a critical point in the game. During the delay, officers huddled together and reversed the call.

“I know we have a passionate fan base and I think that showed on Saturday night and I think we're all a little upset at this moment. I just think we all need to use a little more discretion in those moments, that we don't want that to just be the narrative, that that's what DKR is about,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday.

“I'll put it this way: I really appreciate that our support team cleaned things up so quickly so we could get the game back on track – it was too good a football game to be the focus of everyone .”