After a crackdown by the Big 12, Texas Tech will flatten its tortilla-tossing tradition.
Red Raiders athletic director Kirby Hocutt joined head coach Joey McGuire during a Monday news conference to announce that the university is “no longer going to encourage nor permit the throwing of tortillas” at the opening kickoff of their football games.
Texas Tech fans have tossed tortillas in the crowd at Jones AT&T Stadium since the 1990s.
In August, Big 12 ADs voted 15-1 to assess a 15-yard penalty after two warnings for objects being thrown on the field, with Hocutt the lone dissenter. After the vote, he tweeted, “the rules can change. But our tradition will not” and suggested a new tradition of launching tortillas for the opening kickoff.
But after a raucous scene in Lubbock during the Red Raiders’ 42-17 win over Kansas on Oct. 11, in which Texas Tech was penalized twice for fans throwing tortillas, the Big 12 amended its new offseason rule. There would be one warning, followed by a 15-yard penalty along with a $100,000 fine.
A league source told ESPN that the change was because Tech was unable to get the situation under control.
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So with the No. 14 Red Raiders off to one of the best starts in school history at 6-1 — with a chance to win the Big 12 and make the College Football Playoff down the stretch — Hocutt and McGuire have asked fans to do their part.
McGuire said he understands the tradition, because his own daughter, as a student, even participated.
“We know that as Red Raiders, no one tells us what to do. We make our own decisions,” Hocutt said. “This situation is on me. I leaned into throwing tortillas at the beginning of the football season. Now I must ask everyone to stop.”
Hocutt said Tech’s event operations staff will encourage and remind fans at the gate not to bring tortillas in, and they will ask fans to discard them. If they get them in, they’ll again ask them to pass them to ushers in the aisles who can discard them. Then, if any are thrown and fans are caught, their ticket privileges for all sports will be suspended for the remainder of the year.
Hocutt said it was evident during Saturday’s loss at Arizona State that the Texas Tech brand is stronger than ever. He was asked by a reporter if it’s a coincidence that the Big 12 is cracking down on them now, because of the strides they’ve made in their program.
“We want to be the team that when we’re beat, their fans storm the field because it means that much to play Texas Tech football right now. So I can just say 15-1 still exists,” Hocutt said, referencing that offseason vote. “It’s us against the world in this Big 12 conference, and our goal is to get to Arlington and to raise that trophy.”
