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Sporting braided pigtails, sunglasses, and a cowboy hat on Senior Night, Texas Longhorns defensive end Breckyn Hager was in vintage form following the win against the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday:
I told Breckyn Hager that kansas scored 40 on Oklahoma. “But OU has no defense” he responded.
— Bob Ballou (@BobBallouSports) November 18, 2018
He then looked at the clock. “And what time is it? It’s 11:12 ... and OU still sucks.”
See? Rivalries can still be fun. pic.twitter.com/4NbWoXkjHj
While Longhorns fans merely laughed at the Young Prophet being the Young Prophet, the Big 12 Conference wasn’t nearly as amused, issuing a public reprimand on Monday for Hager’s violation of the conference’s Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct policies.
“Breckyn Hager violated the Conference rule that prohibits coaches, student-athletes, athletic department staff and university personnel from making negative comments about other member institutions for his remarks about the University of Oklahoma,” said Big 12 Commission Bob Bowlsby.
“This is Mr. Hager’s second violation of the Conference sportsmanship rules and therefore, he is receiving a public reprimand and will be expected to issue a public apology for his inappropriate comments.”
The apology was issued by Hager through the school shortly after the reprimand was made public.
“I consider sportsmanship to be an essential part of the game I so truly love. I spoke with our athletics director Chris Del Conte and Coach Herman about what I said after Saturday’s game and understand why it reflected poorly on me and my team. I had no ill intentions when I made my comments about Oklahoma, which included a phrase that’s used by fans, but I have to realize that it’s different coming from me. My thought process was that it would put a fun and light-hearted charge into the greatest rivalry in college football that my family has been involved in playing in for many years, but I can see now that was not the way to do it,” Hager said in a statement.
“I have the utmost respect for the University of Oklahoma and their football program and know a number of players on their team, and I want to apologize to them. I want to represent myself, my family, my football program, my University, and the Big 12 Conference in the best possible way. I’m truly sorry for the comments I made, will learn from this, and will keep working to improve my ability to think about the ramifications of what I say before I say it.”