'Scars' of November Have Oklahoma Prepared for Perils of College Football Playoff

NORMAN — Oklahoma’s backs were against the wall.

After the Sooners’ loss to Ole Miss on Oct. 25, OU was in a position where it needed to win out to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive.

When the SEC schedule came out last year, it looked like the Sooners were done no favors.

A brutal November awaited with consecutive matchups against preseason No. 24 Tennessee, No. 8 Alabama, Missouri and No. 9 LSU.

And while the magnitude of the games shifted a bit as the season went on, it still was as tough of a closing stretch as there was in college football.

But now, having emerged from the gauntlet with four consecutive wins, the eighth-ranked Sooners are grateful for the way things have played out as they prepare for Friday’s CFP opener against No. 9 Alabama at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium (7 p.m., ABC).

“You’re in a big game every week, so you wouldn’t want it any other way,” OU linebacker Kobie McKinzie said. “It prepared you for the run you’re gonna go on. You’re gonna face those teams in the back half of our season that were playoff teams until we beat them.”

While Alabama is coming off an appearance in the SEC Championship Game and Indiana, who will take on the OU-Alabama winner, is coming off a victory over Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game and Texas Tech, Georgia, Tulane and James Madison all won their conference title games, no team has been consistently challenged over the last month-plus of the season as the Sooners.

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Defensive tackle Gracen Halton said the Sooners’ closing stretch — and their success through it — helped show the team the value in Brent Venables’ messaging about systematically attacking each day instead of being overwhelmed with the end goal.

“Having a coach like BV, he’s reminding us everyday in team meetings that we just keep on going,” Halton said. “No matter what happens, we’ve just got to overcome, and that’s what really the whole season was about, just overcoming. The harder schedule, that don’t matter. It’s just football. If we come ready to play, we can beat everybody.”

Oklahoma’s wins during the final month came by an average of 5.25 points, with only one being decided by more than one possession.

“If anything, we’re comfortable when it ain’t going great, when it’s tight,” Venables said. “I think that this is a team that has poise in those moments, being battle tested. I think there’s confidence in the things that we’ve had to go through and overcome. Again, the teams that we’re playing have the ability to punch back so it’s not like we’re going against a bunch of chumps. We’re going against elite players, elite coaches and this is a team that, as we described them, they know how to find a way in those moments and just keep playing, keep throwing punches back.

“Certainly it’s prepared us. Every one of these miscues that you have to overcome and we were able to overcome, I think it just strengthens you. Those scars are things that you lean on.”

Now, the Sooners get a chance to show that they continue to heed the lessons a tough November schedule taught them.

“This is a moment that our guys fought for, competed for and is a moment that they expected,” Venables said. “So now let’s walk it. Let’s be who we are — nothing more, nothing less. And that’s what I would tell them, ‘Let’s go dominate this moment,’ and so you dominate it through preparation, through your detail, continue to be who we’ve been all year and again, let’s play our best four quarters of football the next time that we get together. That’s the vision.”