Arkansas lineman Fernando Carmona broke his silence after being chided for stepping onto the ankle of a Texas A&M player during the Liberty Bowl.
Carmona showed plenty of remorse for what he did this past Friday.
“I’d like to apologize for my actions last Friday night in the Liberty Bowl. I let my emotions get away from me,” Carmona wrote in a post on X. I have nothing but respect for Texas Tech and the game of football. I apologize to my team and coaches. I’m not that kind of player and will learn from this.”
Fans wanted him “banned forever” after a video showed Carmona stepping on the ankle of Texas A&M’s CJ Baskerville, who felt the lineman was doing it with intent.
Baskerville could be seen in pain as Carmona tried to be casual about reaching down to help up a teammate.
“There’s no denying that Arkansas played a great game last night, I am not taking that away from them,” Baskerville wrote in a since-deleted post on X that featured two angles of the incident. “But #55 Fernando Carmona blatantly stepping on my ankle and pressing down on it on purpose is straight up dirty. Proceeds to say ‘got your b**** a***.’ Do better.”
The incident happened when the Razorbacks ran the ball up the middle in the fourth quarter and Baskerville was in to make the stop.
With Baskerville lying on the field, Carmona walked over his ankle
There was plenty of outcry on social media over the events during a game Arkansas won, 39-26.
Arkansas put up 559 yards to Texas Tech’s 497 in the high-scoring affair.
The Razorbacks finished the season 7-6.