NORMAN, Oklahoma — The stage was set for Oklahoma. Heck, the Sooners earned the right to set it. This was supposed to be the ushering in of a new era of postseason football for the No. 8 team in the country that had won 10 games in what was one of the toughest schedules this year.
No. 9 Alabama was even one of those teams that Oklahoma beat on its way to earning this spot. And Saturday night, all was going well for the Sooners. It was going so well, in fact, that after the first quarter, some Oklahoma fans might’ve peeked at flights and hotel rates for the Rose Bowl from inside Memorial Stadium.
And then the Alabama Crimson Tide curled and rolled the Sooners, 34-24, and are headed to Pasadena. After opening with 17 unanswered points, Oklahoma collapsed under the weight of that wave, becoming the only team in College Football Playoff history to blow a 17-point lead. And now, the Sooners have done it twice — before Saturday, in 2018 against Georgia.
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Listed here are my takeaways from Alabama’s Faculty Soccer Playoff first-round victory towards Oklahoma on Saturday:
1. Alabama is probably the most resilient workforce within the CFP
NORMAN, OKLAHOMA: Zabien Brown #2 of the Alabama Crimson Tide stiff-arms John Mateer #10 of the Oklahoma Sooners through the second quarter through the 2025 Faculty Soccer Playoff first-round recreation on December 19, 2025. (Picture by Brian Bahr/Getty Photos)
Crimson Tide quarterback Ty Simpson is an avid reader and listener of school soccer information. Following the most important comeback win in Alabama postseason historical past, Simpson took a second to facetiously thank media members for selecting Oklahoma to win on Saturday evening.
“I suppose we are able to thanks guys for that,” an emboldened Simpson mentioned. “You guys sort of wrote us off in a form of means. So I recognize that.”
After constructing a three-score lead, the Sooners watched the Crimson Tide get better a fumbled punt, choose off Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer and return it 50 yards to the top zone — all earlier than their First Staff All-American kicker Tate Sandell missed not one however two area objectives within the ultimate minutes to solidify the worst collapse in Faculty Soccer Playoff historical past.
In the meantime, the Alabama Crimson Tide will put together to tackle No. 1 Indiana within the Rose Bowl for the CFP quarterfinal recreation. This workforce that punches again and performed its finest soccer with its again towards the wall is one which the Hoosiers should put together for on New 12 months’s Day.
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2. You’ll be able to’t be this up-and-down and contend for the nationwide championship
NORMAN, OKLAHOMA: John Mateer #10 of the Oklahoma Sooners is hit by Deontae Lawson #0 of the Alabama Crimson Tide through the first quarter through the Faculty Soccer Playoff first-round recreation on December 19, 2025. (Picture by Brian Bahr/Getty Photos)
The Crimson Tide started down — similar to they did towards Georgia within the SEC championship recreation. However the final three quarters of Saturday’s recreation demonstrated Alabama to be simply who it says it’s: the sort of workforce that may open with a loss to a foul Florida State and likewise be the primary workforce in six years to stroll into Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia, and are available out with a win.
DeBoer’s activity now could be to discover a method to make sure that the workforce that confirmed up at Georgia earlier this season and at Oklahoma within the first spherical is identical one towards the Hoosiers. Linebacker Deontae Lawson mentioned that’s his job too. However Bama’s finest trait isn’t one which reveals itself till it is in a battle for its life.
“Man, I simply assume we’re a resilient workforce,” Lawson mentioned. “And despite the fact that we have been down 17-0, we didn’t actually take a look at the scoreboard. Coach DeBoer all the time says, ‘Preserve enjoying the sport. The sport will come again to you.’ … We simply hold preventing.”
3. Oklahoma’s cartoonish errors
NORMAN, OKLAHOMA: Head coach Brent Venables of the Oklahoma Sooners speaks to an official through the fourth quarter towards the Alabama Crimson Tide on December 19, 2025. (Picture by Brian Bahr/Getty Photos)
Let us take a look at the larger ones:
- Mateer’s air-mailed pass intended for receiver JaVonnie Gibson in the first half that would’ve gone for six
- Mateer’s pick-six with barely a minute left in the second quarter
- Punter Grayson Miller’s fumble/blocked punt
- Sandell’s two missed field goals — one from 36 yards, then from 51 yards, despite hitting a 51-yarder in the first quarter — to bring the game to one-score with not five minutes left to play
These are blunders. Errors that aren’t pressured however self-inflicted. It’s troublesome to win any recreation with these sorts of errors in your drive chart. It’s practically not possible in a recreation of this magnitude, towards a workforce as gifted and as resilient because the Crimson Tide.
4. A (temporary) stay live performance
NORMAN, OKLAHOMA: Keon Keeley #31 of the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrates after defeating the Oklahoma Sooners within the Faculty Soccer Playoff first-round recreation. (Picture by Stacy Revere/Getty Photos)
Oklahoma normally performs 50 Cent’s “Many Males” earlier than the beginning of the fourth quarter. In an try to make a press release for its first CFP recreation at Owen Subject, the Sooners introduced the rapper himself out onto the sector to carry out the music for followers in a Exhausting to Kill Hoodie.
“I didn’t understand it was stay,” DeBoer mentioned.
“I didn’t know who 50 Cent was,” Simpson mentioned, “however I do know that music.”
“We play that music at follow on Fridays,” Lawson mentioned.
RJ Younger is a nationwide faculty soccer author and analyst for FOX Sports activities. Comply with him @RJ_Young.
