Clint Lamb
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Auburn is now 3-2 on the season. After a tough loss to South Carolina in Week 4, the Tigers are walking away from Week 5 with a 35-28 victory over Ole Miss.
All is right in the world, right? Wrong.
Yet again, there was a controversial ending to the game. The Rebels scored and converted an extra point to go up 28-27 with 5:43 remaining in the fourth quarter. On the ensuing kickoff, the ball appeared to touch Auburn running back/kick returner Shaun Shivers before bouncing into the end zone.
Except it was called a touchback. And it wasn’t reviewed.
Ultimately, the officials didn’t feel it was close enough to review. That hasn’t gone over well on social media, especially after the ending a few weeks ago against Arkansas. Check out the replay for yourself.
Auburn catches another huge break as the kickoff looks like it hits Shaun Shivers’ pinky and rolls into the endzone. It is called a touchback and replay does not review. #AUBvsMISS pic.twitter.com/IprB4MzICy
— Bad Sports Refs (@BadSportsRefs) October 24, 2020
Speaking of social media, here are some of the reactions to the call. It has gone over about how you would expect it to following any sort of controversy.
Shaun Shivers touched that ball. Ole Miss just got hosed.
— Barrett Sallee (@BarrettSallee) October 24, 2020
Hey @SECOfficiating how do you not review that kickoff in the Auburn Ole Miss game? Shaun Shivers clearly touched that ball and it should have been a live ball. Why do you think Shivers started chasing after it? Bigtime fail.
— Stephen Emerson (@EmersonScientia) October 24, 2020
Auburn must have some major dirt on @GregSankey with the amount of blatantly missed calls that go their way. That or @SEC Refs are just incompetent. Since y’all are so quick to throw out fines, how about fine refs for awful officiating.
— Drew Coker (@_drewcoker_) October 24, 2020
Did the SEC Review Center opt out in 2020? #AUBvsMISS @JOXRoundtable
— Jim Dunaway (@jimdunaway) October 24, 2020
The Tigers still had to march down the field, score another touchdown and get the two-point conversion to pull out the 35-28 victory. They deserve credit for that, but it is still unfortunate that officials continue impact games in a negative way.
With all that being said, wide receiver Seth Williams was sensational (eight catches, 134 yards and one touchdown). Tank Bigsby was even better. The true freshman running back was given 24 carries, which he turned into 129 yards and two touchdowns.
Auburn welcomes the LSU Tigers (1-2) to Jordan-Hare Stadium next Saturday. Ole Miss will go on the road to take on Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn.
Follow Clint Lamb on Twitter @ClintRLamb.
Geez. Auburn really stinks and the SEC seems to be trying to cover up their failures with a dryer sheet. SEC just means more IF the league office likes your school. Otherwise just go away.
Difficult to win when Auburn consistently fields 17 against 11. Arky was screwed and so was Ole Miss. Only thing in common is both are lower tier SEC schools. Should’ve been a safety for OM and would’ve gotten the ball back. Good to see the pandemic isn’t impacting upper echelon SEC bias this year….
All 3 of Auburn’s wins have come via blown calls that have benefitted Auburn. There’s no way you can tell me something isn’t up. Auburn isn’t that good.
Lol I cannot stand gus malzahn and I still think Auburn is a bad bad team but they were just making up for the blown call on the kickoff return and that is facts. Also, no one points out in the arkansas game that it was a backwards pass…YES. But the Auburn Receiver shedrick jackson had the ball in his hands just in case it was actually a fumble and then he dropped it after the ref kept blowing his whistle. So auburn still would have had a loss of down and still been in field goal range. People in the media kept saying the Arkansas guy “recovered the fumble” and thats 100% false. Go back and look at the plays but yes the refs did blow both of the calls but the results are reported incorrectly especially on the Arkansas game. I am a student at Alabama and I even noticed these two things.
I wish Auburn loses every single remaining game because I think Gus Malzahn is a clown regardless
Oh my gosh. Y’all…get out with the bias talk and calm down. In college FB it doesn’t matter whether Shivers touched the ball or not. He did not gain possession, therefore it is not a fumble. According to the NCAA rule book, whether he touches the ball or not, once it goes into the end zone it is a touchback *automatically.* That is not true in the NFL. But that is the rule in college football. The announcers had no idea what they were talking about and neither did, ironically, Gene Chizik or any of the other announcers at the studios – not to mention Twitter, and now this post. Good grief.
Thanks for pointing out the rule. Even Barrett Sallee didn’t know the rule. Amazing.