NORMAN, OK – The damn thing was over. The rout was on.
Hell, even Michigan wouldn’t have wanted a piece of Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer after this debacle in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
And then a remarkably beautiful thing happened in a 34-24 come-from-behind victory over Oklahoma: DeBoer finally, mercifully, forced the impatient Alabama fan base — and the rest of the college football world — to buy in. Like it or not.
‘We always say the game will come back to you if you keep working, keep fighting,’ DoBoer said. ‘Just keep chipping away.’
Which, of course, is the perfect analogy for DeBoer’s rocky ride in the most pressure-packed job in college football. How do you separate from the omnipresent Nick Saban?
Do the unthinkable in a CFP game.
Forget about 2nd-and-26. Or The Drive. Or The Gravedigger.
None of the storied unthinkable and improbable from Saban’s 17 seasons at Alabama can match DeBoer’s Lazarus moment against Oklahoma, a strange and surreal game that changed the program’s momentum and DeBoer’s place in it.
Especially with so much riding on it.
This wasn’t just any playoff game, another in a long line for the most dominant program in the modern era of the sport. This was a prove-it moment for DeBoer, whose first two seasons in Tuscaloosa have included any number of imperfections that Saban, in all his championship glory, would never, ever let slide.
So when Alabama began the game with 12 yards of offense, and Oklahoma began the game with 17 points, well, the end of the DeBoer era could be seen from the vocally rabid in Houndstooth — to say nothing of those in Ann Arbor desperate for a coach.
And then it happened, a run of bizarre so surreal, it had those in this state wondering who exactly was channeling Sooner Magic?
It’s not hyperbole to say two critical Oklahoma turnovers late in the second quarter — that Alabama didn’t force but led to 10 points and completely changed the course of the game — may go a long way in shielding DeBoer from what would’ve been a brutal offseason of second-guessing from the torturous Tide fan base.
If Alabama gets blown out in its first CFP game under DeBoer, in the words of that great sage Tommy Castellanos, even Nick can’t save him.
If the Tide loses to Oklahoma three times in 13 months, with each loss connected to missing the CFP (2024), losing an opportunity to host a first round game in the CFP (November, 2025), and a blowout loss in the first round of the CFP, well, DeBoer may as well have been DOA.
The Tide righted the ship, quarterback Ty Simpson finally played like he did in the first half of the season when he was leading the Heisman Trophy race, and now Alabama will head to Pasadena and play No. 1 Indiana in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal game.
As Simpson ran off the field at Memorial Stadium with a single red rose in his mouth, with a stunned crowd in disbelief at the turnaround it witnessed, he ran toward DeBoer and bear-hugged him. The two men at the epicenter of Alabama angst since the beginning of November.
It was Simpson who Thursday night in the team hotel in Oklahoma City, stood up during a team meeting and said he would give every ounce of energy. His tank would be empty by the time they ran off the field.
He kept the ball on zone read calls to keep the aggressive OU defense honest, and scrambled for critical hidden yards in the run game. He took a beating in the pass game, sacked four times and pressured countless other times.
And he kept coming back and firing big throws. His first touchdown passes was a fourth down throw to freshman wideout Lotzeir Brooks to make it 17-7 late in the second quarter, and his second was a perfectly thrown deep ball to Brooks early in the third that gave Alabama its first lead of the game and completed the wild turnaround.
The two touchdown catches were Brooks’ first touchdown catches of the season.
Just another twist in an unreal turn of events that, believe it or not, may just be the thing Alabama needs to move a teetering season into a memorable one. This was Alabama’s best 34 minutes of the season (maybe the best of DeBoer’s two seasons), a run so impressive — both offensively and defensively — the idea of Indiana strolling through the quarterfinals is no longer a reality.
For the first time in DeBoer’s Alabama tenure, the Tide defense played (and dominated) a big game when it had to. For the first time in his tenure, the Tide offense righted itself and played lights out in critical moments.
Alabama had five sacks, and held Oklahoma to 55 rushing yards on 33 carries. It played sticky coverage in the secondary, and baited Sooners quarterback John Mateer into a critical pick six that changed the momentum of the game.
Alabama is primarily a zone coverage team, but on this specific play late in the first half, played Saban’s famous Seven Up coverage ― or a Cover 7. The hybrid man-zone coverage confused Mateer, who threw to a spot on the field where a receiver wasn’t ― because the receiver was running an option route and fooled by the coverage.
Alabama cornerback Zabien Brown intercepted the throw, and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at 17. By the time it was over, Alabama’s 34-7 run was more impressive than anything DeBoer’s teams have produced ― including the two wins over Georgia.
‘After that, our guys were begging to play man coverage in the second half,’ said Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack.
Mateer was 11-of-14 for 116 yards in the first half. He was 15-of-27 in the second half, with a majority of his 191 yards in garbage time when Alabama reverted back to zone coverage to protect a 10-point lead.
‘Just keep playing, play after play,’ said Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson. ‘We’re not done yet.’
From on the verge of being blown out and DeBoer sustaining a critical blow to his brief tenure, to the coach whose team finally found itself 14 games into the season. Whose team is now a legitimate threat to No. 1 Indiana, and the rest of the CFP field.
Somehow, some way, Alabama avoided what seemed like an inevitable split with DeBoer 25 minutes into a crossroads game, and is suddenly playing its best ball.
‘There was never any finger pointing,’ DeBoer said. ‘There are more battles ahead, more big games out there.’
They’re feeling it in Fultondale, believing it in Boligee, manifesting it in Muscle Shoals. The Tide is rolling again.
Alabama has its man after all. For now, anyway.