DeBoer says Alabama players ‘better remember’ what happened last year vs. Oklahoma

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Kalen DeBoer does not want his players to forget what happened last year when Oklahoma defeated Alabama 24-3 and closed the door on the Crimson Tide’s playoff hopes.

The Sooners and the Tide are set to compete in a top-25 matchup Saturday on Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. While Alabama will have some freshmen and transfers on the field for this one who did not experience last year’s game, DeBoer wants those who did to be well aware of how the game went.

“We have a lot of new players on the team, so there are players that didn’t experience that,” DeBoer said. “The ones that did certainly better remember and understand that more importantly that you’re facing a really good program that obviously we went to their place and got beat up pretty good last year and that’s who’s coming to town this week. Coach Venables has done an amazing job instilling a culture there. We know we got a team that is coming here hungry, in the hunt for a lot of different things as far as reaching their goals. But for us, we do then try to make sure that we always are focused on really this team being what we’re centered on and us improving. And that’s the focus is, how did we get to this point this year to where we’ve had the success? What’s it going to take to to be our best on Saturday? And so again, you try to hone in on that, but you can’t help but remember the past and those questions that you asked just now were also aske a few weeks ago we played Vanderbilt and so forth. Our guys should remember that because our experiences help us be better the next time around.”

Alabama is currently ranked No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings. The Sooners are ranked No. 11 and can not afford another loss. This presents the Tide with a golden opportunity to return the favor to Oklahoma by putting an end to the Sooners’ playoff hopes.