The University of Texas athletic department moved quickly to knock down a report suggesting its new artificial intelligence lab had a hand in calling a fourth-down play during last week’s loss to Florida.
The confusion started the same day Texas unveiled the Bevo Lab, a 25,000-square-foot facility on campus built with help from Google to bring AI into decision-making across the athletic department, including roster building and revenue-sharing matters.
An Austin American-Statesman report tied that announcement to a specific moment in the Florida game, describing a fourth-and-2 situation in the fourth quarter with Texas trailing 20-17 at Royal-Memorial Stadium. The report said coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff “turned to their new artificial intelligence data analytics platform” before quarterback Arch Manning lost three yards on the play, and that athletic director Chris Del Conte called the moment “a pivotal embrace of the new tech.”
That framing spread fast on social media, with Texas fans speculating that Sarkisian had consulted an AI tool mid-game to decide what play to run.
Del Conte addressed the matter directly in comments to Bobby Burton, saying the published account mischaracterized what happened. According to Del Conte, he had cited the fourth-and-2 decision only as an example of the kind of recommendation Bevo Lab could generate in the future — not as a description of what actually informed the call on the field.
Texas enters its game against Ole Miss on Saturday night still searching for consistency on offense after consecutive losses to unranked opponents, with scrutiny falling on both Sarkisian’s play-calling and Manning’s performance at quarterback.
