Todd Orlando explains why he told Texas DT Chris Nelson not to do his belly rub celebration

In case it wasn’t clear already, Texas Longhorns offensive coordinator Todd Orlando is an old-school guy.

So, last Saturday, when he saw senior linebacker Gary Johnson go over to senior defensive tackle Chris Nelson and do Nelson’s belly rub celebration that debuted the previous weekend, he felt it was time to end that particular performance.

Orlando had two reasons for making that decision.

“I get the having fun, but we’re at the University of Texas, and we don’t need to do that,” Orlando said. “Like I told them on the bench, I’m not trying to take people’s swag away. But there’s a fine line to disrespecting the game.”

To be clear, Orlando doesn’t have a problem with his players celebration together, he’s just not a fan of that type of self promotion — it takes away from the team, in his belief.

The other reason was much more practical.

“Plus, we’re going to get flagged eventually, and we were running pretty decent there,” Orlando said. “A flag would’ve been really awful to do something like that and get a penalty.”

Nelson said on Tuesday that Nelson can still do the celebration on the sideline, but don’t expect to ever see it on the field again.