Capital One Orange Bowl: Oklahoma Sooners vs Alabama Crimson Tide

Looking at the history between the Alabama Crimson Tide vs Oklahoma Sooners, it might surprise you to see that Oklahoma has a 3-win streak over Alabama. First, you must take in consideration that this is a totally different era in College Football compared to when both teams faced off in the past and second, you must think about the mindset that this Crimson Tide team was in when they lost against the Sooners.

Both 2002 and 2003, were two different coaching eras for the Crimson Tide with 2002, the head coach being Dennis Franchione, and 2003, the head coach being Mike Shula.

In the era of Dennis Franchione, who was on his second year in 2002 as head coach of the Crimson Tide, they ended the season with a 10-3 record with two of those losses being against the Oklahoma Sooners, and the Auburn Tigers.

Things went downhill going into 2003, after Dennis Franchione resigned as head coach. In replacement of Franchione was Mike Price, who ended up being fired due to detrimental conduct as an employee, which left the University to hire Mike Shula going into a struggling 2003 season. The Crimson Tide ended the 2003 season with a 4-9 record with two of those losses being against both Oklahoma Sooners, and Auburn Tigers.

Back in this era, the Oklahoma Sooners were clearly the better team, and just coming off a BCS National Championship win in 2000, so their program was nearly at the top going into the match up against the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2002 and 2003.

Ten years later both of these teams faced off against each other in the 2013 Allstate Sugar Bowl, where the Oklahoma Sooners defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide, 45-31. Prior to this loss, the Alabama Crimson Tide had suffered a loss to the Auburn Tigers.

If you look at all three losses to the Oklahoma Sooners in 2002, 2003 and 2013, the Alabama Crimson Tide had suffered losses to the Auburn Tigers as well. If you are an avid College football fan you would know that the Iron Bowl match-up between Auburn and Alabama is a huge deal in the state, as well as the opportunity to compete in the SEC Championship game.

Now with the year being 2018, the Alabama Crimson Tide has had a tremendous 13-0 season coming off a huge victory against the Georgia Bulldogs, and an Iron Bowl win over Auburn. I, for one believe that the Crimson Tide showed true grit against the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship because it could have gone either way. During the match-up between Alabama vs Georgia, the Crimson Tide looked beatable, but in the end, they prevailed.

The Oklahoma Sooners on the other hand went on to defeat their longtime rival, the Texas Longhorns in the Big 12 Championship game to avenge their only loss of the season.