Alabama, Kalen DeBoer Hope to 'Polish Things Up’ from Losses to Oklahoma, Others

ATLANTA — Oklahoma fans won’t treasure the 2024 season as a whole, but Sooner Nation will long remember what happened against Alabama on Nov. 23.

The Crimson Tide, ranked No. 7 nationally, lost 24-3 in Norman as the Sooners got their sixth win needed to reach bowl eligibility. The landmark victory also touched off a raucous celebration when thousands of OU faithful poured onto Owen Field to exhort their heroes.

The loss made Alabama 9-3 in the regular season and kept the Crimson Tide out of the College Football Playoff. Bama played Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl, losing 19-13.

The Crimson Tide lost games against Vanderbilt — another unranked squad — and Tennessee earlier in the year. They collected ranked wins against No. 2 Georgia, No. 15 LSU and No. 21 Missouri, but their trio of losses kept them on the outside looking in at the CFP.

Kalen DeBoer, now entering his second year as Alabama’s head coach, believes that last year’s road blocks will ultimately aid the Crimson Tide in getting back its status as college football’s premier program.

“We fell short of making the playoffs,” DeBoer said. “It's as simple as that, right? Giving yourself a chance to go compete for a championship. I think there's a lot of things that I'm super proud of that have happened within the program that are part of the progression. Yeah, we want it right now, too.”

Alabama is one of just a few programs with more program tradition than Oklahoma.

The Crimson Tide claims 18 football national championships (13 are undisputed), with six of those coming in the 21st century. Last year’s 9-4 campaign was the first time that Alabama failed to win double digit games since 2007, Nick Saban’s first year with the program.

READ MORE OKLAHOMA SOONERS

A 9-3 regular season is above average for most programs — but not Alabama.

“A lot of those losses happened in Year 1 at different places,” DeBoer said. “So you want Year 2 to be moments of growth, where you can polish and clean things up.”

Of the Crimson Tide’s four losses in 2024, their defeat against the Sooners was the ugliest. OU led 10-3 at halftime before outscoring Alabama 14-0 in the second half to earn a 21-point win. Xavier Robinson ran for 107 yards and two touchdowns and Kip Lewis returned an interception for a touchdown to power the Sooners.

Throughout the offseason, DeBoer and his assistants have been trying to pinpoint moments from the Tide’s losses — both early and late in games — that proved costly.

“We have to be better in the big moments,” DeBoer said. “We lost some close games last year. We had chances maybe not even in the fourth quarter, but early in the game to separate ourselves or make a play here or there.

“Whether it was the belief or whether it was the confidence, a lot of that just comes through repetitions. We really had a great offseason understanding where we fell short, why we fell short. Not just the what and the how but the why.”

The Sooners will again battle the Crimson Tide late in the season in 2025, facing off in Tuscaloosa on Nov. 15.

OU is 4-2 against Alabama all time, winning four of the last five meetings. If things go according to plan for the Sooners, new quarterback John Mateer and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle will help turn the game into a ranked matchup by the time the teams square off.

Whether Oklahoma takes a step forward or not, DeBoer believes his team will be better prepared for both ranked and unranked contests.

“I'm proud of them and the way they've responded to us not realizing the goals that we set out to have, getting back to work, focusing on the main thing,” DeBoer said. “I feel that's always been the case. Sometimes there's ups and downs that you have to go through unfortunately that we had to experience. But in the end, we're going to take advantage of the failures we've had and be better because of it.”