Kalen DeBoer passes his Alabama prove-it moment, Tide rises to CFP occasion
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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: DeBoer finally, mercifully, forced the impatient Alabama fan base — and the rest of the college football world — to buy in. Like it or not.
Forget about 2nd-and-26. Or The Drive. Or The Gravedigger.
None of the storied unthinkable from Nick Saban’s Alabama teams can match DeBoer’s Lazarus moment in an improbable 34-24 victory over Oklahoma.
Especially with so much riding on it.
This wasn’t just any playoff game, another in a long line for the most dominant program of 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 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 a rabid fan base.
If Alabama gets blown out in its first CFP game under DeBoer, in the words of the 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 a home 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.
An unreal turn of events that, believe it or not, may just be the thing Alabama needs to turn a teetering season into a memorable one. This was Alabama’s best 34 minutes of the season, 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.
Big sacks and pressures on defense. Big throws and catches on offense. And even the longest run since Week 2, when running back Daniel Hill broke free for the explosion play to set up a perfectly-thrown deep ball from Simpson too freshman wideout Lotzeir Brooks for the go-ahead points.
The 30-yard throw and catch gave Alabama its first lead, and the surge that began at the end of the first half, hit overdrive in the second half. The game completely turned: from an OU rout, to Alabama running the Sooners out of their own building.
From DeBoer on the verge of a long offseason in Tuscaloosa, or a short tenure as the Alabama coach and a new address in Ann Arbor, 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.
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.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kalen DeBoer may finally win over Alabama fans with CFP win vs Oklahoma
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