Nick Saban reacts to Alabama’s comeback win over Oklahoma in CFP First Round

The first round of the College Football Playoff got underway Friday night with a familiar heavyweight matchup. The Alabama Crimson Tide traveled to Norman to face the Oklahoma Sooners.

Alabama entered the CFP as the No. 9 seed. That set up a rematch against an Oklahoma team that had already beaten the Crimson Tide earlier this season at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The loss handed Alabama its second defeat of the year and made Friday’s meeting feel like a referendum on whether the Tide truly belonged in the playoff field.

Early on, it appeared the Sooners had the upper hand once again. Oklahoma raced out to a 17–0 lead, and history suggested the deficit would be too much to overcome. Teams trailing by 17 or more points were just 1–28 in CFP history, with the lone exception being Georgia’s comeback against Oklahoma in the 2018 Rose Bowl.

By the end of the night, Alabama had rewritten that narrative. After a rough first quarter, the Crimson Tide flipped the script entirely, rattling off 27 unanswered points on the way to a 34–24 comeback win. 

The victory sends Alabama to the Rose Bowl, where it will face No. 1 seed Indiana Hoosiers in the CFP quarterfinals. Following the game, Nick Saban praised Alabama’s composure and mental toughness via ESPN’s College GameDay, particularly in one of college football’s most hostile environments.

Saban: ‘I’m so proud of that team’

“I said they’re going to have the heart of a lion to be able to sustain in that atmosphere,” Saban stated. “I’m so proud of that team, because that atmosphere was something. It was hard to sit there and pick Alabama last night, sitting in that stadium, knowing the energy in that stadium.

“Sometimes, I think the emotion of the game can work against you. Oklahoma was way up here, but as the game went on, you could see that that emotion didn’t sustain.”

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit echoed those sentiments. He pointed to the pressure facing Alabama’s new era under Kalen DeBoer.

“Think about this, they eliminated a 17-point deficit in five and a half minutes,” Herbstreit added. “Kalen DeBoer, being down 17, trying to fill these shoes — if he doesn’t do it the way he did it, he’s feeling the wrath. … You see the way this team fought through. Going to Athens, dealing with Vanderbilt, dealing with Missouri — four straight teams they had to play in the Top 25. You’re down 17 on the road, and you come together.”

For Alabama, Friday’s comeback served as both a statement win and a reminder of why the Crimson Tide remain one of college football’s most dangerous postseason teams. We’ll see what they have for the Hoosiers in the quarterfinals.