Texas Tech University athletic director Kirby Hocutt has announced the athletic department is putting an end to the traditional throwing of tortillas at the opening kickoff of football games.
As reported by NBC affiliate KCBD in Lubbock, Monday's announcement comes after Texas Tech received a fine from the Big 12 for fans continuing to throw tortillas onto the field well after kickoff during the homecoming game against Kansas.
The football team has also been penalized on the field.
Related: Texas Tech Coach Urges Student Section to Limit Tortilla Tossing to Kickoff, Focus on Noise Levels
“As we move forward, we are no longer going to encourage nor permit the throwing of tortillas at the opening kickoff for our home football games,” Hocutt said during a weekly news conference with coach Joey McGuire.
Last week, the Big 12 announced increased penalties for throwing objects on the field. The first violation will be a warning from the public announcer, the second violation results in a 15-yard penalty and a $100,000 fine.
“I was shocked,” freshman Kristin Keroti said, as reported by KCBD. "I can’t believe they kind of just threw away the whole tradition.”
Student Tochi Emerruem added, "It was a great experience. There’s nothing to look forward to now.”
Another student said he will continue to throw the tortillas during the opening kickoff despite the ban, and he doesn’t expect to be the only one.
“As a student, I’m going to bring tortillas, I’m going to throw them at the field,” freshman Drew Bitel said. “I think as strong as our community is, there’s going to be a huge reaction towards it. There’s going to be more tortillas thrown today than there was previously.”
According to The Daily Toreador student newspaper, fans who violate the department's request to stop throwing tortillas will have their ticket privileges revoked for all Tech sporting events for the remainder of the academic year.
“The situation is on me,” Hocutt said. “I leaned into the throwing of tortillas at the beginning of the football season. Now I must ask everyone to stop, and I must ask our staff to enforce it on game days.
“We will encourage and remind fans at the gate not to bring tortillas in," Hocutt said. "If they brought them, we’ll ask them to discard them before they come into the stadium.”
As reported by Keith Inglis of The Daily Toreador, Hocutt said the department will continue to spread the message throughout the week as Tech prepares to host Oklahoma State University on Saturday, and a message before kickoff will be displayed on the video board at Jones AT&T Stadium.
Moreover, additional law enforcement and video surveillance will be at future games to further supervise the situation. The athletic department installed two more cameras last week following the Kansas game to identify any attempts made by fans to throw tortillas, Inglis reported, adding the 10 total cameras will be supervised and run by stadium personnel.
“If you did somehow get tortillas in, please pass them to the aisles,” Hocutt said. “We’ll discard them for you.
“We control our own fate in every situation. On the football field as well as with our event operations. We know that as Red Raiders, no one tells us what to do. We make our own decisions, and we encourage actions because they are the right thing to do.”
