Berry Tramel
Tulsa World Sports Columnist
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Prophets walk among us. In 2017, Rodger Sherman, writing for the Ringer, asked this question about football.
“Let’s say a team huddled with 11 players, and one lackadaisically jogged to the sideline and waited,” Sherman wrote. “Would that qualify as ‘simulating a substitution?’ Would it be the offense’s fault if the defense was dumb enough to buy it? Does any player walking toward the sideline under any circumstance constitute a ‘tactic of substitution?’”
You know where I’m going. Where Sherman was going. The 2025 OU-Auburn game, September 20 in Norman, and the Sooners’ “hideout tactic” (the Southeastern Conference’s words).
If you want to call Brent Venables unethical, knock yourself out. Unsportsmanlike? He doesn’t care, even though Venables won’t plead guilty on either count.
Now devious? Deceptive. Those are different. Dang right OU football is devious. OU and every other shoulder-padded team. Deception is a major ingredient in winning football games. From the crossbuck to Tom Osborne’s fumblerooski to hiding the football under your shirt (a real thing in the early days of American football), coaches forever have sought cunning ways to win.
Venables doesn’t have much interest in talking about the continuing saga of Isaiah Sategna’s subterfuge against Auburn. But Venables did address the idea that his Sooners turned to dirty pool in beating Auburn 24-17.
“My job’s to coach, and the officials, they’ve got to officiate,” Venables told me last week. “Like I said, I’m not offended. That would mean I value other people’s opinion on something that I know who I am and what our program stands for.”
The OU-Auburn scandal did not go gently into any good night. The Tigers spent all last week expressing outrage that the SEC officiating crew failed to penalize the Sooners on what became a John Mateer touchdown pass. Auburn wallowed in so much angst, you wondered if the Tigers forgot they had a ballgame to play, at Texas A&M, no less.
And while the venom is directed at the SEC, it spilled over into Norman, where the Sooners are perceived as getting away with something. Like Gaylord Perry’s spitball or the Royals’ Jorge Orta getting called safe at first by Don Denkinger.
And of course OU got away with something. That’s what football teams do.
Holding a little on the offensive line. Chucking receivers a little in pass coverage. Timing a snap to get the perfect jump off the defensive line, and if you’re a little early it’s hard to detect. Faking injuries to slow uptempo offenses (which also has Venables’ fingerprints). Gridirons are greenhouses for trying to get away with something.
Those plays are akin to a softball runner leaving first base a tad early. A savvy hoops defender grazing the elbow of a delicate jump shooter.
Heck, the Sooners twice against Auburn were flagged for devious plays: offensive pass-interference on pick plays.
Not any different ethically than Sategna sauntering off the field at a leisurely pace, only to stop before the sideline, discreetly step up to the line of scrimmage and ask the head linesman if he was properly aligned.
The SEC declared Sategna’s actions penalty-worthy, and I’m not arguing. The rulebook says “no simulated replacements or substitutions may be used to confuse opponents … No tactic associated with substitutes or the substitution process may be used to confuse opponents … This includes any hideout tactic with or without a substitution.”
I suppose that’s what Sategna was doing, though words like “simulated” and “hideout” are a little vague. I don’t see many players walking off the field. You could argue that Sategna brought more attention to himself by walking. But that’s sort of the point. Write the rules clearly, or this is where we’ll be.
That’s how you get innovative coaches trying all kinds of things. If the officiating crew flags you, it’s costly. If not, it’s a bonanza.
“I was told it would be good,” Venables said of alerting the crew the play was coming. “We did it exactly (like OU said). I don’t really care. We won the game.”
The Auburns didn’t catch on to Sategna and neither did the refs. Seems like it’s the responsibility of both.
Deep into last week, Auburn president Chris Roberts and athletic director John Cohen still were talking about the play and their outrage toward the SEC.
Cohen tweeted that the Tigers “remain extremely disappointed” and “deserved better.”
The university released a statement, attributed to Cohen, that said, “Our young men prepare each week to compete at the highest level. They deserve to have the game officiated at the highest level. We fully understand the human element of the officiating process.
“Judgment calls don’t always go your way. Saturday went beyond judgment calls. A specifically emphasized rule was not properly officiated which impacted the game by giving our opponent the lead.”
Well, I don’t know if Sategna went beyond a judgment call. The SEC crew was told it was coming, it came, complete with player/official interaction. And nothing was called. Is that not judgment?
But don’t blame the Tigers too much. You’d be miffed if such a play cost the Sooners a game. Not that the Sategna play beat Auburn. The Tigers had more than half the game to recover and didn’t do it.
And some saw it coming. Some saw it coming years ago.
Coaches always are up to something. Remember the Kansas kickoff return, where a Jayhawk wearing blue laid down on the blue paint of the end zone, then sprang to his feet at the kickoff, so he could be part of a fancy backwards pass?
The sideline hide has been employed by the likes of Jim Harbaugh and Dabo Swinney, and if you say that figures, know that former Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson did the same, and Johnson coached at Navy. They’re fairly honorable in Annapolis.
Isaiah Sategna walked toward the sideline in the clear light of day. Auburn didn’t see him, but Rodger Sherman saw it all in his crystal ball.
berry.tramel@tulsaworld.com
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Berry Tramel
Tulsa World Sports Columnist
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