(Correction: This story was updated to clarify that Matthew McConaughey is a University of Texas alum but not did not play football there.)
One of college football’s biggest regular season games between then-No. 1 Texas and then-No. 4 Georgia was briefly delayed on Saturday after Texas students threw trash onto the field at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium.
On Monday well-known Texas alum and Longhorns ‘Minister of Culture’ Matthew McConaughey issued a statement on X (formerly Twitter) directed toward Texas students, calling the incident ‘not cool’ and a ‘bogey move.’ He also said Longhorn Nation is ‘better than that.’
‘First off, you were electric Saturday night when we hosted Georgia. Bravo. Let’s continue to bring it. Even though our Horns didn’t get the W, you created a measurable home-field advantage,’ wrote McConaughey, who has been a constant figure at Texas games in recent years.
‘But let’s get real about the bottle bombing the field glitch we had. Not cool. Bogey move. Yeah, that call was BS, but we’re better than that. Longhorn Nation knows how to show up, show out like no other, and still keep our class. So, going forward, let’s clean that kind of BS up and leave that behind us for good. We have to shake hands on that.’
The play that led to the incident McConaughey is referencing came in the third quarter, when officials made a controversial defensive pass interference call against the Longhorns. The call was then overturned following the delay on the field, which got Georgia coach Kirby Smart rather furious about postgame.
The SEC announced on Sunday that Texas fined $250,000 for Saturday’s game interruption as a violator of its sportsmanship, game management and alcohol availability policies. The conference is also requiring Texas to use all resources to determine which fans were throwing objects, with those identified being banned from all Texas events during the 2024-25 athletic year.
‘The throwing of debris and resulting interruption of play that took place Saturday night cannot be part of any SEC event,’ SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. ‘The SEC is assigned responsibility by its membership to enforce its sportsmanship and game management policies and these actions are consistent with that oversight responsibility, including the financial penalty and mandated reviews.’
Matthew McConaughey issues statement on Texas-Georgia game
McConaughey graduated from Texas in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in Radio, TV and Film. He was given his ‘Minister of Culture’ title by the university in 2019 and has taught several courses at Texas over the last few years.
Here’s a full look at what McConaughey said in his post on X on Monday:
With the loss, Texas (6-1 overall, 2-1 in SEC play) fell to No. 6 in the latest US LBM Coaches Poll that was released on Sunday. The Longhorns will travel to No. 25 Vanderbilt (5-2, 2-1) on Saturday for a 3:15 p.m. ET kickoff.
