Written by Tyler Pastorius
This time of the year for college football fans is when we hear a lot about Alabama, Nick Saban, and who the Roll Tide will be playing in the first game of the playoffs for the National Championship. This year is no different with arguably one of the best teams that Nick Saban has put together. The team they are going against though have put together a team that can put up points in the Oklahoma Sooners. The Sooners even have the national Heisman at QB with Kyler Murray. But the big question, do the Sooners have anything to stop the Roll Tide? Let’s take a bigger look into it.
When it comes to QB’s who really has the advantage here? Again, Oklahoma has Kyler Murray but on the other hand, Alabama has Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts. Kyler Murray may have won the Heisman but, it is truly hard for me to say I would rather have him over Tua or Jalen. Both Tua and Hurts have played a full season (excluding playoffs) as a starter for Bama which means a lot of experience with options if one isn’t playing that well. Having the experience alone aids both players. Both players are able to learn from each other and sort of “piggyback” off of the gameplan and how each other play. Which also helps when a new QB may come into play (IE, when Bama played Georgia and Jalen, Hurts took over) and the offense doesn’t skip a beat. Kyler Murray is good, but when you compare him to Tagovailoa or Hurts he isn’t great. The accolades and trophies don’t always tell the story.
When it comes to defense there is practically no conversation on who has the better side here. Oklahoma has given up a good amount of points in almost every game, but the high-powered offense and the play of Kyler Murray helped the Sooners get to where they are at, not the defense. Meanwhile, for Alabama, the most points they gave up all season was against Georgia which was 28. Out of those 28 points, only 7 of them came in the second half. With a defense that can create chaos like Alabama’s if they slow down Kyler, it can be a long night for Sooners.
One of the least talked about aspects of football, special teams. Oklahoma holds an advantage here. Alabama kicker Joseph Bulovas is 12 of 16 on field goals and 76 for 84 for PAT’s. Sooners kicker Austin Seibert is 15 of 17 with a near perfect 84 for 85 for PAT’s. To go with that, Alabama has been in last in the country when it comes to punting with an average of 35.4 yards per punt. But when you look at this, how much of an impact is this going to be on the game? With these two offenses, punting is probably not going to play a role. However, if we talk about field position off of kickoffs, only 39% of the Roll Tide kickoffs have resulted in a touchback. If the Sooners are able to utilize some speed and great blocking on kickoffs, then they can win the field position battle and hope to compete in a back and forth scoring competition.
The last aspect is having the mental fortitude to battle through this game and close out the outside comments and media. This starts with Lincoln Riley for Oklahoma and Nick Saban for Alabama. The coaches have to instill the thoughts and try to help these young players battle through what others are saying along with whatever happens on the field. It has been clear already that Nick Saban’s Roll Tide have already shown that in the Georgia game. For Oklahoma, we have not really seen any of it yet. If they go down early against Alabama how are they going to respond? Will there be a QB change? Does Kyler step up and show up as a leader? What is said at halftime in the locker room? These are all possible questions and situations that I would imagine Lincoln Riley is trying to prepare for. He may not have the answer right now but if he thinks about it and has some sort of outline that can help. This is going to be the biggest game for the Sooners and the way they respond to situations in the game is going to huge. If Riley can coach the Sooners up and have them built mentally strong while also playing near perfect football early, they have a chance. But being near perfect is different from being completely perfect especially when you go against Nick Saban and the Roll Tide.
This is a true David vs. Goliath story. Is it possible? Yes. But Oklahoma must be ready for a fight and be willing to do anything that they need to do to win. It is a tall task and will require them to leave it all out on the field. This game should be a great matchup, but I think Alabama still pulls it out and once again have a date for the National Championship game.
(Image Credit: Andrew Suarez / The SkyBoat)
