Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte moved to clean up the air around a controversial fourth-down call from last weekend’s 27-24 home loss to Florida, after a report linked the decision to a new AI-driven analytics platform.
The uproar started with a Friday article in the Austin American-Statesman, which reported that Del Conte had pointed to a fourth-and-2 situation as an example of Texas leaning into Bevo Lab, the school’s new AI data analytics initiative. On the play, the Longhorns trailed Florida 20-17 and quarterback Arch Manning was stopped for a 3-yard loss.
Del Conte later clarified those remarks, saying he was describing what the AI platform could recommend rather than saying it actually made that call, according to On Texas Football’s Bobby Burton.
Texas introduced Bevo Lab on Friday and described it as “higher education's premier sports intelligence platform and living laboratory.”
The timing of the controversy lands at a rough moment for the Longhorns, who were sitting atop the AP Top 25 only two weeks ago but are now unranked after consecutive defeats. Their next chance to steady things comes Saturday against No. 7 Ole Miss.
Even with the slide, Del Conte said Thursday he wasn’t sounding the alarm.
“Rome is not burning,” Del Conte said, per CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello. “Expectations should be high.
They're high for us, too. That's why you come to University of Texas.
But the noise is a lot greater outside than it is in our building, than it is on the Forty Acres.”
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The Rebels have the kind of pieces that make a protection problem even harder to solve, from Blake Purchase and Will Echoles on the defensive side to Deuce Alexander on offense. For Texas, the challenge is not just keeping Arch Manning upright, but doing it against a team that has shown it can punish ranked opponents and force them into uncomfortable football. If the Longhorns are going to steady things, this is the kind of test that will tell the story quickly. [Read more 🡒]