Deontae Lawson Has 'Different Perspective' Ahead of Return to Norman After Injury

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Disaster struck Alabama football in more ways than one during its 2024 visit to Norman, Okla., to take on the Oklahoma Sooners. The Crimson Tide went belly-up on offense and lost 24-3, taking a fatal blow to its College Football Playoff chances, and it also lost a defensive captain.

Linebacker Deontae Lawson went down in the second quarter with a knee injury that ended his season. The situation caused Lawson to rethink leaving school for the NFL; instead, he returned to Tuscaloosa for one last collegiate season and another go-around as a captain.

On Friday, the redshirt senior will return to the place where the injury that affected the trajectory of his career happened. The No. 9 Crimson Tide (10-3) faces the No. 8 Sooners (10-2) in the first round of the College Football Playoff at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

Lawson is now Alabama's leading tackler in 2025, with 75 stops to his name. He will compete at the Panini Senior Bowl in January of 2026 and has two nine-tackle games this season (Wisconsin and LSU). The squad's only returning captain from last year also hasn't missed a game in 2025. He had five tackles in the team's 23-21 loss to Oklahoma on Nov. 15.

"God is great, you know? Looking back and just knowing where my headspace was, kinda, it just put me in a different perspective," Lawson said on Monday. "Even going out there in practice today, just flying around, just trying to bring guys with me, cause I actually get to."

What Lawson has done this season represents a physically impressive feat. He accomplished more than getting back to the gridiron quickly. He has been the impact playmaker that made him an NFL prospect in the first place. Playoff teams don't generally see their names in the bracket without players like Lawson, whose importance to the defense goes beyond the green dot on his helmet that signifies the speaker letting him hear the play calls.

"He's playing as good of football as he has played. He's got great confidence. He's taking care of his body at an elite level. He operates as a professional," defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said Tuesday. "He's getting rewarded for it at the back end of the season."

Wommack told his players in fall camp that football is a war of attrition, sprinkling in reminders of it throughout the season, and that their best ability amidst the physicality of the SEC is being on the field. A physical embodiment of such a message can help drive the point home. The Crimson Tide has one in the form of a veteran player who recovered well enough from a November ACL injury to be able to play in a game the following August.

"Guys like him that take care of their bodies throughout the grind of a season in the SEC are ultimately gonna put us in position in the playoffs to go compete," Wommack said. "If I'm looking at Deontae Lawson in terms of the NFL, and his availability, and the way he's pushed himself, what a guy that is gonna show up every week and he's only gonna get better and better."

Lawson has done that over the course of his tenure at Alabama. The Mobile, Ala., native went from playing four games in 2021 and redshirting to becoming one of the Crimson Tide's most important players in any of the game's three phases.

"He's great for his teammates. He's great in our building. He's a leader. He holds people accountable. He plays with tremendous effort in practice every day," Wommack said. "His best ability is his availability. Just keeps showing up. It's awesome."

This year, when the Crimson Tide plays a game during the month of December, Lawson will be available. It's one of the most important games of his college career. If Alabama loses, it'll be the last, and it goes down on precisely the same turf where his journey was changed.

"It's a feeling I can't explain, to be honest," Lawson said. "I'm excited to go back and just take it all in. I know I will give everything I got, for sure."

Alabama and Oklahoma are scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. CT on Dec. 19. The win-or-go-home contest will be broadcast nationally on ESPN and ABC. The victor is slated for a berth in the Rose Bowl against No. 1 Indiana on New Year's Day.

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