Oklahoma-Alabama Series Always Delivers High Drama

When the Sooners and Crimson Tide meet on Saturday in Norman, it should be just the latest crimson clash that produces memorable events.

Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray / Mickey Welsh

NORMAN — Sure, Alabama is a 13 1/2-point favorite on Saturday.

And sure, Oklahoma is limping along at the bottom of this year’s SEC standings with a 1-5 record.

The Crimson Tide has won three in a row by double-digits. The Sooners have lost their last four against FBS competition.

But Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. showdown at Owen Field promises something beyond one single-game matchup.

This is college football. This is the essence of the sport’s greatness. This is history. This is two of the game's cornerstone programs now sharing a conference. This could be the first game that defines one of America’s greatest new rivalries for the next hundred years.

One thing is certain. Historically speaking, Oklahoma-Alabama produces big plays, unexpected momentum swings and memorable performances.

OU leads the all-time series 3-2-1. Here’s a look back at the previous six meetings between the crimson powerhouses:

1962 — Orange Bowl Blowout

Alabama 17, Oklahoma 0

By the ‘60s, Bud Wilkinson’s Sooners had lost their fastball. 

After dominating the 1950s, OU went 3-6-1 in 1960 and 5-5 in 1961. So the fan base was feeling pretty good about things when Oklahoma finished the 1962 regular season 8-2 and were 7-0 with one last Big Eight championship and a trip to Miami for the Orange Bowl.

But Bear Bryant’s Crimson Tide was not to be trifled with. Two football royals — quarterback Joe Namath and linebacker Lee Roy Jordan — had ‘Bama at No. 5 in the AP poll.

John F. Kennedy tossed the pregame coin, but that would the highlight for OU. Namath threw one touchdown and added a deep ball that set up another Tide score, and Jordan collected 31 tackles against the outmanned Oklahoma offense, directed by option QB Monte Deere. 

Ron Fletcher hit Allen Baumgardner with a 56-yard pass to the Tide 6, but fullback Jim Grisham, who suffered a shoulder injury the day before, lost the first of his two straight fumbles from the Bama 6. 

Alabama led 14-0 in the third quarter, and Jordan the Tide defense turned back two OU possessions inside the red zone in the fourth quarter. 

1970 — Tying the Bluebonnet

Oklahoma 24, Alabama 24

Chuck Fairbanks’ No. 20-ranked Sooners were 7-4 at the end of the 1970 season, 5-2 and second place in the Big Eight. Unranked Alabama suffered five losses for the second year in a row under Bear Bryant, just 3-4 in the SEC. The Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston was the best they could do. 

The Tide struck first, but after Jack Mildren converted three third-and-long plays — the last one a 34-yard pass to Jon Harrison — Joe Wylie’s 2-yard TD run tied it.

Two long TD runs by Greg Pruitt of 56 and 25 yards put the Sooners up 21-7, but the Tide scored just before halftime to make it 21-14.

OU got an end zone interception in the third quarter, but the Tide responded with a field goal to make it 21-17, and in the fourth quarter, Scott Hunter’s TD pass to Johnny Musso put Alabama in front 24-21.

With one last chance, Mildren put the Sooners back in the red zone, but he was sacked on third down, bringing on kicker Bruce Derr to tie it up with a 42-yard field goal with 59 seconds left.

Bama recovered the onside kick and quickly got downfield, but the Tide’s long field goal was wide right.

2002 — Renaldo Works Over the Tide

Oklahoma 37, Alabama 27

Kudos to the schedule-makers for finally putting together a regular-season matchup between these two heavyweights.

But while Oklahoma had caught fire under Bob Stoops, winning the national championship in 2000, just missing out on another in 2001, and just missing out again in 2002 (they can blame Oklahoma State for both), the Tide had fallen on relatively hard times, posting losing records in 1997, 2000 and 2003 and suffering five losses in 1998 and 2001.

This year, at least, was a 10-win Bama squad, but when they came to Norman for game two on Sept. 7, the Sooners were ranked No. 2 for good reason.

So Dennis Franchione opened the game with a successful onside kick, which immediately produced a field goal. 

OU got a stop, and a bad punt snap rolled to the end zone for a Sooner safety. 

After Bama’s free kick went out of bounds, Jason White threw a perfect deep ball to Mark Clayton for a 32-yard touchdown.

Then, fate stepped in. White went down on a scramble with no one around him. This time it was his right knee. A year before, he was lost with an injury to his left knee.

Late in the second quarter, Derrick Strait stripped a fumble that was recovered by Teddy Lehman. After Franchione got hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, Nate Hybl threw deep to Clayton for a 49-yard TD, giving OU a 16-3 lead.

Hybl kept it going as he finished off a short drive with a QB sneak that put the Sooners up 23-3 at halftime.

Bama opened the third quarter with a touchdown drive, then blocked Jeff Ferguson’s punt and returned it for a touchdown. 

Another special teams strike — a fake field goal — pushed the Tide to a 24-23 lead, and the Sooners were reeling after a Tide field goal made it 27-23.

Hybl’s shovel pass to Renaldo Works gained 24 yards, and two plays later they did it again, this time to the 8-yard line, where Kejuan Jones powered in for a touchdown to put the Sooners back in front 30-27 with 2:25 to play.

Bama had one more chance, but quarterback Tyler Watts fumbled and Eric Bassey scooped it up and raced 45 yards for the clinching touchdown with 24 seconds left.

2003 — Riverboat Bob Turns the Tide

Oklahoma 20, Alabama 13

Bob Stoops had gained a reputation for gambling — and winning — but never was his bravado bigger than in the rematch on a warm night in Tuscaloosa.

The No. 1-ranked Sooners would play for a national championship that year, but not before they needed a special teams miracle to outlast Bama.

Bama QB Brodie Croyle was intercepted by Antonio Perkins on the game’s first play, and Trey DoCarlo’s field goal put the Sooners up 3-0. Another DiCarlo field goal made it 6-0 in the first quarter.

Bama cut it to 6-3 late in the second quarter, but Jason White — healthy and on his way to the Heisman Trophy after back-to-back knee injuries — hit Mark Bradley for 35 yards and Mark Clayton for 46 as OU led 13-3 at halftime.

In the third quarter, Alabama marched 80 yards and punched it in to cut OU’s lead to 13-10.

OU was backed up deep in its own territory and quickly went three-and-out. On fourth-and-10 from the 31, Stoops called for a fake punt. Punter Jeff Ferguson and upback Teddy Lehman both asked if he was sure, and Stoops told them to knock it off or Bama would sniff it out. Ferguson caught the snap took a step forward and quick flipped a pass to gunner Michael Thompson, who bobbled the ball twice before picking up 22 yards for the first down. On the next play, White hit Brandon Jones 47-yard touchdown bomb, and OU led 20-10.

Bama drove to the red zone, but Dante Nicholson intercepted Croyle at the 4. 

The Tide got the ball back and added a field goal to cut it to 20-13, but the onside kick was covered by OU.

White threw for 259 yards and four TDs, and Renaldo Works rushed for two scores.

2013-14 — Trevor’s Big Day was Sweet

Oklahoma 45, Alabama 31

In the 2014-15 Sugar Bowl, Trevor Knight poured one sweet throw after another.

In its only win over Nick Saban, No. 11 OU threw for 348 yards and four touchdowns — all career-highs — and the Sooners turned on a pass rush and made some key takeaways in the blowout.

OU led 31-17 at halftime against a team that won back-to-back national championships and spent most of 2013 ranked No. 1. OU was a big underdog to A.J. McCarron, who was 36-2 in his career before losing to Auburn in the Kick Six game and to Oklahoma in the Trevor Knight game.

McCarron suffered two turnovers as Eric Striker, Geneo Grissom and the relentless OU pass rush hit him often.

Freshman Derrick Henry had a 43-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to cut it to 31-24, and Henry busted a 61-yard TD run with 6:22 to play to cut it to 38-31.

But Striker stripped McCarron, and Grisson returned it 8 yards for the clinching touchdown.

Bama led 7-0 behind big plays from Amari Cooper and T.J. Yeldon, and Knight and McCarron quickly exchanged interceptions before Knight settled in, throwing a TD pass to Jalen Saunders.

McCarron answered with a 67-yard TD throw to DeAndrew White, and Michael Hunnicutt’s 47-yard field goal tied it at 17.

Bama had a chance to take the lead, but Yeldon fumbled when he ran into his own blocker at the OU 8-yard line. Two plays later, Knight hit Saunders with a 43-yard TD, and he later connected with LaColtan Bester for a 34-yard pickup and Sterling Shepard to stretch it to a two-touchdown lead.

2018 — South Beach Wipeout

Alabama 45, Oklahoma 34

This was without a doubt the most meaningful meeting in the colorful history of the OU-Bama series, and the Sooners simply fell flat.

Although Lincoln Riley often said, “We were close,” this game never was. The No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide improved to 14-0 by scoring the game’s first 28 points in 17 minutes and literally manhandling Riley’s high-flying OU offense.

The anticipated matchup of Kyler Murray versus Tua Tagovailoa never really materialized — not after Murray took off on an early scramble and was yanked down from behind like a rag doll by Tide noseguard Quinnen Williams.

Murray threw for 308 yards and ran for 109 yards, and his 49-yard TD pass to Charleston Rambo was picture perfect.

But OU fell to 12-2 as Riley claimed the Sooners were “agonizingly close.”

How close? At one point, Alabama had 191 total yards of offense, while Oklahoma had zero.

Thanks to the gifts of Murray, OU did rally within 11 points three times in the final 18 minutes, but couldn’t get an onside kick.

In a way, Oklahoma’s greatest victory from this Miami blowout was landing deposed Alabama starter Jalen Hurts the next year, as the prodigious Hurts — benched in the national championship game against Georgia the year before — followed Murray and led the Sooners to a 12-2 record, another Big 12 championship and a return to the College Football Playoff.