The B12 (XII) Forum, home of the 'Front Porch, y'all' at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

 That it's gone this long without being called is odd.

Not really. 
Like you said yourself... this is a sport played by adults.  I too think they can handle the horns down without crying about it.
It seemed like everyone got along just fine for the longest time with horns up and horns down without the need for penalties.  Everyone was a grown up so I'm not surprised at all it went this long without being called.    As I said, I tend to doubt a school hand gesture was what the rule makers had in mind when they instituted the taunting rule.

Appears it wasn't until longhorn football coaches (at least according to the article) starting complaining that it became an issue... mostly notably Herman.  And voila.... here we are.  Horns down is a penalty.  

Referring to the last post by utee: Back to your defense of the “rights of the offended to be offended” argument, with sincere comments made by the other side written off as irrelevant.  Ok sure be offended.  It’s your right by gar.

As for what happens on the field, I’m not a big fan of refs being able to change the outcome of the game based on subjectively determined side issues that don’t amount to anything.  If taunting leads to a brawl, okay penalize em.  But players giving each lip across the lines etc, no big deal, as long as it doesn’t lead to a physical fight.  That’s just part of the game, and it will always be part of it.

... at least according to the article...

Are you unfamiliar with Mac Engle?
He doesn't report the news.  He isn't even aware of what's going on.
I remember in 2013 when Texas had narrowed Mack's replacement down to Charlie Strong , James Franklin and David Shaw, Mac Engle wrote a long article chiding Texas for not considering a minority candidate.
9 times out of 10 when I read something idiotic, Engle's name is on the byline.
The guy is a complete moron.  I wouldn't believe a word he says.  He's the biggest joke in the dying industry of print journalism.

He could be a complete moron for all I know.  He's a "journalist" afterall.  The bar is set quite low.

That said, is the article I linked getting facts wrong?  If so, please clarify.

If anyone on the Texas side complained, I have zero doubt that it was something like, "Hey, if you're going to call the horns-up as taunting, and if you're going to call the holstering pistols as taunting, then you should also be calling the horns-down as taunting.

Which is 100% correct, so I have no problem with a conversation like that happening.

He could be a complete moron for all I know.  He's a "journalist" afterall.  The bar is set quite low.

That said, is the article I linked getting facts wrong?  If so, please clarify.

Come on, Huckleberry.   You're an intelligent, educated man.  Don't pretend you've read something that isn't there.  Where in that article does it draw a documented correlation between Texas/Tom Herman and the rule?
It's not journalism.  It's an opinion piece that basically opines that if horns down is a penalty, then horns up should be a penalty too.  
After whining about how horns up is "disrespectful and hurtful," and "deeply disrespectful" he has the incredible absence of self-awareness to talk about "snowflakes."
Nowhere in that article does Egel explicitly say that the Big 12 imposed the rule because Tom Herman asked Bob Bowlsby to do so.  
Nowhere in any of the articles Engle links (one of which was a Burnt Orange Nation article that called penalties for horns down "ridiculous") does it explicitly say that the Big 12 imposed the rule because Tom Herman asked Bob Bowlsby to do so.  
Engel does his best to imply it with statements like, "The person in the middle of this crisis? My Tommy Boy."
But he doesn't back it up with any facts.  He just talks about Herman taunting the Missouri quarterback, and how Herman is a hypocrite.
If you're writing an article about how Herman is so upset about horns down, don't you think most intelligent writers would maybe add something... like... oh I don't know... a quote by Herman perhaps, complaining about horns down.
Would you like to know what Tom Herman really said about horns down, when somebody actually asked him about it?  He said, "we're used to it."
https://247sports.com/college/texas/Article/Texas-Longhorns-Football-Tom-Herman-weighs-in-on-Oklahoma-Sooners-Lincoln-Riley-Horns-down-controversy-Big-12-championship-125595502/
Granted he said a lot of stuff about handling ourselves with class and how people have always disrespected Texas and granted comments like that can be laughed at by detractors.  Heck, I even find them ironically amusing and I'm a Texas fan.
But to jump from that to calling him a snowflake and saying with (undocumented) authority that he (as Mac Engel contends or the Texas fan base, like you first asserted, Huckleberry) is the reason the Big 12 calls those penalties is a leap of wishful thinking, unsupported by any evidence.
Especially unsupported by anything in that crap article.

I hadn't been paying attention to this tempest in a UT-pot until now, but definitely Tom Herman is out to lunch on this imo.  Forget the sportswriters.  I just saw a video clip of Coach Herman himself after the WVU game arguing that a WVU touchdown should be reversed because a WVU player did the horns down thing.  Are you kidding me?  That's complete chicken shit.  No two ways about it.

Texas has a cool hand signal.  This is well known.  They're a successful program and the envy of others.  They're gonna catch some flak about it.  We Sooners catch flak all the time, via all manner of BS, in fact the whole "OU Sux" machine based in Texas is practically a cottage industry all on its own.  I don't see our coaches or players whining about it.  But I do see them going out and showing the haters how to win on the field.