AUSTIN, Texas — Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks shared his thoughts on the events in Austin, Texas on Saturday night.
Brooks posted a lengthy statement to X just after 3 a.m. CST following Georgia’s 30-15 win over Texas.
“It is my privilege and duty to serve the University of Georgia and part of that responsibility is to stand up for my coaches, student-athletes, staff, and all of Dawg Nation,” Brooks said. “As proud as I am of the resolve our team had, I am also equally disappointed and frustrated in some of the circumstances of our game Saturday night. I don’t find it productive to publicly demean or embarrass officials or the conference office via social media. That would be no better than the physical action of throwing objects on the field.”
“However, I will challenge the conference office on what happened and how it happened in the manner it did. Thankfully this did not cost our young men a hard fought win. Disagreeing with a singular call is natural and will happen several times in every football game. I can accept that. What I cannot accept is the manner in which this specific call was reversed. The official claimed he erred in the call. My question is when did he realize the error? If it was before the delay that occurred due to fans throwing objects on the field, what stopped him before the head official made the announcement and spotted the ball? I have faith we, as a conference, will learn from this and get better. We must, because in the SEC it just means more.”
There was a four-minute delay from when the penalty had been announced to when the penalty had been overturned by the officials. In between, Texas fans threw trash onto the field, creating the delay and opportunity for officials to discuss the call at length.
After the game on Saturday, the SEC also put out a statement discussing the matter.
“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. “Consequently, Texas was awarded the ball at the Texas 9-yard line.
“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 disruption of the game due to debris being thrown onto the field will be reviewed by the Conference office related to SEC sportsmanship policies and procedures.”
Georgia coach Kirby Smart knew he would have to walk a fine line on the matter when addressing the comments with reporters.
“I will say that now we’ve set 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,” Smart said. “And that’s unfortunate, because to me, that’s dangerous. That’s not what we want. That’s not criticizing officials. That’s what happened.”
As Brooks pointed out, the call did not end up swinging the game. Georgia won 30-15 and improved to 6-1 in SEC play. The interception came at a point when Georgia led 23-8, and Texas’ corresponding touchdown after the incident made it 23-15.
