Auburn AD John Cohen releases statement on controversial OU touchdown
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Auburn athletic director John Cohen released a statement late Thursday afternoon explaining exactly how the Tigers football program still felt about an Oklahoma touchdown last Saturday that was ripe with controversy.
The then-No. 22 Tigers lost a heartbreaking 24-17 game in Norman to Oklahoma in Jackson Arnold’s return to Norman, and it was heartbreaking for Auburn for multiple reasons. It was the Tigers’ first loss of the 2025 season in their SEC opener, and Auburn felt a touchdown that the Sooners scored in the 2nd quarter shouldn’t have been allowed. With the game being so close from start to finish, Cohen’s issue in Thursday’s statement was that the controversial touchdown impacted the outcome of the game.
“We remain extremely disappointed because our young men prepare each week to compete at the highest level,” Cohen said in a statement. “We fully understand the human element of the officiating process. Judgment calls don’t always go your way. Saturday went beyond judgment calls.”
And Auburn’s players, Cohen felt, “deserved better.”
The play in question happened with 10:45 left in the first half, with the game tied at 3-3. Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer dropped back and found a ridiculously wide-open Isaiah Sategna down the left sideline for a 24-yard touchdown connection and that 10-3 lead that Cohen was referring to in his statement. Now, Auburn did answer with a touchdown of its own late in the half, went into halftime tied at 10-10, and stayed right with the Sooners to the bitter end.
ESPN sideline reporter Molly McGrath got an explanation from Jeff Heaser, the head referee of last Saturday’s crew, seeking an explanation for why the touchdown on the “hide-out play” was allowed.
Naturally, with the touchdown happening in the second quarter, Auburn had ample time to still win the game and almost did anyway. But Oklahoma had the final say in a game that will likely be talked about for years to come, especially on the Plains.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
