Oklahoma Stuns Alabama

This was not supposed to happen. Alabama has now lost two in a row. Alabama lost with weeks to prepare. Oklahoma won with weeks to prepare. Alabama made inexcusable mistakes. A non SEC team beat Alabama. A QB most folks do not know outplayed Alabama's defense and counterpart A.J. McCarron. Bob Stoops beat Nick Saban despite giving him inspiration with his SEC hype is all propaganda. Alabama's NFL-caliber offensive line was embarrassed. etc. etc. There are many ways to analyze this game and the focus can easily remain on the "wow" factor of Oklahoma, of all programs, knocking off Alabama in a BCS game. The main benefit is to Bob Stoops's resume as he and his Sooners had become a second tier national power unable to compete with programs like Alabama (who could) or even LSU, Oregon, etc. Once the lost to Texas this year the Sooners disappeared from the national media. They clearly regrouped and only lost one game the rest of the way, on the road to Baylor. But until they beat Oklahoma State they had been largely forgotten. And suddenly as an underdog of all things they have thrived. The pressure of being a Sooner has been lifted somewhat and the team seems to be enjoying themselves. It helps that a young quarterback like Trevor Knight could emerge on such a big stage, but the reality is that Oklahoma has always had good coaches and good talent. They finally, with the help of a great offensive game plan, put it all together while showing the world that Alabama is human. As for Bama the main question now is how they adapt to handle spread offenses. They will have to pull away from trying to beat everyone up as in some circumstances yesterday their advantage in size did not help against a team playing hurry up with fast players. I also believe that they must improve their schedule as a way to prepare the squad for January. It has not hurt them in title games because they played an over-matched Notre Dame squad, an LSU team in a rematch and a Texas team that would have given them a much better game if its star QB did not get hurt. Oklahoma's schedule down the stretch, which included, from October 1 on, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma State and Kansas State (plus clunkers Kansas and Iowa state) prepared them much better than Alabama's schedule of Georgia State, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Chattanooga plus a middling Mississippi State and two ranked teams LSU and Auburn. The joke schedules that have helped them get into title games hurt them this year. The Crimson Tide play an even weaker schedule next year, which will get them into the four-team playoff. Who knows what will happen from there.