The University of Alabama is the first team to advance in this year’s college football playoffs. Oklahoma was on its way to be the first team to beat Alabama twice in one season since Grover Cleveland was President. The Sooners led seventeen to nothing in the second quarter. That when the Tide came to life, tying the game by half time. The final score was thirty four to twenty four. Quarterback Ty Simpson says the naysayers among the press helped…
“Yeah, I guess we can thank you guys for that. I mean, y'all kind of wrote us off in a sort of way. So appreciate that,” he said.
Coach Kalen DeBoer also had a few choice words for the team’s critics.
“The doubt piece -- there’s enough confidence within our group to where we can see the doubters, we can see the naysayers and just go still play our game," DeBoer said. "This group is tight enough to where there’s never been any finger pointing. There’s ever been anything like that.”
There was the sentiment that maybe Alabama shouldn’t have made the field. The Crimson Tide lost badly to Georgia in the Southeastern Conference championship game and a strong Notre Dame squad got left out of the field. Then, rumors about him possibly leaving for Michigan were serious enough for him to issue a statement saying he was happy at Alabama.
Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson didn't like the way the media portrayed the Crimson Tide after the loss to Georgia, but he agreed with Simpson and DeBoer's sentiment.
“That’s when we’re at our best,” he said.
The Crimson Tide had lost their previous two games to Oklahoma, and it looked like maybe the Sooners had their number. Oklahoma jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the second quarter.
But DeBoer and his team proved resilient. The Crimson Tide rattled off 27 straight points on the way to a 34-24 win that earned them a spot in a Rose Bowl quarterfinal against No. 1 seed Indiana.
DeBoer said he was never worried, even when Oklahoma took control early.
“You can’t go score a 17-point touchdown,” he said. “You've got to score one score, even if it’s three points. And that’s what our guys did.”
Now, the Crimson Tide are closer to where they expect to be at this time of year.
“We’re not done yet,” Simpson said. “That’s all I got to say.”
Alabama now faces Indiana in The Rose Bowl. Today’s playoff games will feature Miami, Texas A & M, Ole Miss, James Madison, and Oregon.
