Oklahoma owned the first 15 minutes of its first-round CFP tilt with Alabama. From there though, the Tide rolled. And now they have a date with Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.
NORMAN, Okla. — Emerging from the southeast tunnel here at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, the man slowly walked out from the shadows, through pumped-in fog and into this venue’s bright lights.
His face was unmistakeable: It was 50 Cent.
Mic in hand, one of America’s most famous rappers strolled out to the football field at the break between the third and fourth quarters here Saturday, donning an Oklahoma sweater emblazoned with the team’s motto this season: Hard to Kill.
In the end, the phrase is better suited for the Sooners’ opponent.
Down 17-0 on the road in a hostile environment, its season on the line, perhaps even its head coach’s future in doubt, Alabama survived.
Hart to kill? That’s the 2025 Alabama Crimson Tide — winners over Oklahoma on Friday night, 34-24, in a somewhat-unprecedented comeback for the storied history of this famed football program.
So many times throughout this season, we thought they were dead. Cooked. Fried. Done.
How about after the preseason No. 8-ranked Tide lost at Florida State? What about when they flopped in a November home game against this very Oklahoma team? Then there was the 21-point loss to Georgia in the SEC championship. And, finally, 19 minutes into this one Friday night, they trailed by three scores, looking sluggish, sad and altogether dysfunctional.
Then came a 75-yard touchdown march, a blocked punt, a pick-6 and 27 consecutive unanswered points, a late defensive stand in a three-point game and then an impossible-to-believe reception from Germie Bernard to punctuate and seal the win.
Players streamed off the field here, “We’re going to LA! We’re going to LA!”
Rose Bowl officials distributed single roses as players gripped them with their teeth in a roaring locker room celebration. The ninth-seeded Tide (11-3), the second-to-last team into the field, meets top-seeded Indiana (13-0) in Pasadena.
“Y’all kind of wrote us off. Appreciate that,” a smiling Ty Simpson said afterward, the hero of this unconscionable comeback.
Think about this: By the time Oklahoma took a 17-0 lead, Simpson and Alabama’s offense managed 12 yards on nine plays and punted three times.
The Tide looked lost. It looked like the Jekyll version of this yo-yo of a season before the Hyde arrived. And, boy, did it.
Bama scored on five of the next seven drives — a shocking turn of events when considering the previous 18 drives dating back to the Iron Bowl. Alabama had two scoring drives in those 18 tries.
“I was trying to get guys to believe just one score, one score. Just chip away,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said. “Resiliency has been kind of a theme all season long. Showed up in a big way tonight.”
A brief off-stage moment after the postgame news conference showed even the coach’s surprise. DeBoer leaned over to Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne and said, “Whew! Never been down 17!”
DeBoer and Byrne briskly walked out of the news conference room, embracing one another in a joyous moment that is likely, at some point soon, to transform into a new contract for the coach. The two sides have been working toward a deal as the Michigan head coaching jobs hangs open.
What now in Ann Arbor? Many within the industry believed the Wolverines were awaiting the result of Friday night’s game. An Alabama loss would have paved the way, perhaps, for a more serious conversation with the coach about UM’s vacancy.
The search now is expected to pivot from DeBoer to a string of other candidates, most notably Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham.
If the Tide’s 17-point hole had held up, if they’d lost, would DeBoer have really left one of the country’s best gigs? If so, it wouldn’t have been because of the Tide’s lack of support, said ex-coach Nick Saban while on "College GameDay," originating from here in Norman on Friday.
“Kalen DeBoer has the total and complete support of the University of Alabama,” Saban said. “They want him to be the coach at Alabama. Maybe they can get him at Michigan, I don't know.”
Now, after the win, it would be a logistical hurdle. The Wolverines aren’t expected to wait any longer, certainly not another two weeks, when the Tide tangle with the Hoosiers.
There are two more rounds beyond that and Simpson expects to be there.
“We’re not done yet. That’s all I got to say,” he said.
The Alabama quarterback marched the Tide back from the dead, lifted them out of their coffin, dug’em up from the dirt.
Hard to kill? It’s these guys, loaded with talent, skills and five-star signees.
“The game is going to come back to us,” DeBoer said. “We have too many good players. That’s what happened tonight. The game came back to us.”
The stars shined during the stunning 17-point rally.
Simpson completed 23- and 29-yarders to begin the comeback on that nine-play touchdown march. Tim Keenan blocked a punt that turned into a field goal. Zabien Brown intercepted OU quarterback John Mateer and returned it 50 yards for the tie.
After halftime, Daniel Hill ran for 30 yards — the Tide’s longest rush since Week 2 — and Simpson fired a 30-yard scoring strike to Lotzeir Brooks.
Finally, nursing a three-point lead, with about 8 minutes left, Bernard made a 24-yard grab behind the back of a defender, gripping the ball somehow, some way and falling to the turf to set up the game-sealing score.
Hard to kill?
That’s Alabama.
Bernard made his catch a few minutes after 50 Cent’s surprise performance. As players huddled to prepare for the fourth quarter, the rapper swept onto the field singing his hit, “Many Men.”
As they heard the tune and saw the familiar face on the stadium’s Jumbotron, Bama players erupted from their sideline huddle moving toward the rapper as they sang with him. As it turns out, the team holds a tradition of listening each Friday to that tune. It fired them up.
“It gave us some juice,” linebacker Deontae Lawson said afterward as he glanced toward Simpson, on the stage with him at the post-game news conference.
Simpson laughed and turned to the room of reporters.
“I’ll be honest,” he said. “I didn't know that was 50 Cent, but I did know that song.”
Category: General Sports
