Alabama at Oklahoma: College Football Playoff players to watch, key to game

The College Football Playoff starts with a rematch as the first round kicks off Friday night.

No. 8 Oklahoma is the host this time as No. 9 Alabama comes to Norman. The Sooners took down the Crimson Tide in November to push their way into the playoff field. Can Oklahoma get it done again?

[More CFP: Miami at Texas A&M | Tulane at Ole Miss | JMU at Oregon]

No. 9 Alabama at No. 8 OklahomaHow these teams got here

Alabama (10-3): As the playoff discussion largely centered around Miami’s move ahead of Notre Dame, don’t forget that Alabama didn’t drop from No. 9 in the CFP rankings after losing the SEC title game. The Tide lost 28-7 to No. 3 Georgia in a game that played out exactly like the final score would indicate. Georgia controlled the game. It wasn’t a late touchdown or two to make a close game look more like a blowout after Alabama had beaten the Bulldogs earlier in the season.

Before losing to Oklahoma on Nov. 15, the Crimson Tide had won eight games in a row after a Week 1 loss to Florida State. The Sooners forced three Alabama turnovers and capitalized on all of them. The fourth quarter was a slugfest; Tate Sandell’s fourth-quarter field goal with 13:41 to go were the only points of the final 15 minutes.

Oklahoma (10-2): The Sooners enter the CFP on a four-game win streak after losing 34-26 at home to No. 6 Ole Miss. Since then, Oklahoma has beaten three teams ranked at the time in Tennessee, Alabama and Missouri and ended the regular season with a win over LSU.

Before losing to Ole Miss, Oklahoma scored wins over Michigan and Auburn but lost to Texas in the Red River Rivalry. That was QB John Mateer’s first game back after hand surgery following his injury in the Auburn game. Since Mateer returned, the Oklahoma offense hasn’t looked nearly as dynamic as it appeared to be at the start of the season.

How the QBs stack up

Both quarterbacks enter the playoff on similar trajectories. Mateer was the betting favorite for the Heisman after the Auburn game. Alabama QB Ty Simpson was the favorite for the Heisman halfway through the season.

Neither QB came close to making it to New York as a finalist or sniffed the top 10 in the Heisman voting.

Simpson had been excellent in the six games since that FSU loss. He was exceptional against Missouri in Week 7 as he led a game-clinching drive in the fourth quarter. And he threw just one interception over Alabama’s first nine games.

Something has been off recently, however, even as Simpson has thrown for over 3,200 yards. Is it Alabama’s inability to run the ball? Something bigger than that? Simpson was 19-of-39 passing for 212 yards and a TD and an interception in the SEC title game. He’s thrown four interceptions over his last four games and previously had a six-game streak of fumbles.

Mateer has 19 total touchdowns this season. Eleven of those scores came in the first four weeks of the season. Oklahoma’s offense has been very hard to watch for much of the season. Before Mateer was 23-of-38 passing for 318 yards against LSU, he hadn’t thrown for more than 173 yards in any of his last three games. And even though he topped the 300-yard mark for the first time all season against an FBS opponent, he threw three interceptions.

In his first five games back from injury, Mateer totaled just four touchdowns. He’s thrown for four scores over Oklahoma’s last two games. Is that a sign of a potential offensive resurgence as he gets further and further away from that surgery?

Players to watch

Alabama RB Jam Miller: The Crimson Tide really, really need a healthy Miller on Friday night. Miller leads the team with 493 yards over nine games in 2025. You have to go back to Ahmaad Galloway in 2000 to find the last Alabama player to lead the team in rushing with fewer than 700 yards.

Miller missed the SEC title game due to injury as Alabama rushed 16 times for minus-3 yards (including sacks). For the season, Alabama has just 424 carries for 1,511 yards and even that line is inflated by 269 yards against FCS Eastern Illinois. The Tide have averaged more than 4 yards a carry against an FBS team just twice all season. Can Alabama run the ball against an Oklahoma defense that allows 2.5 yards a carry?

Oklahoma WR Isaiah Sategna III: The speedy Sategna has been a walking big play for the Sooners. And they’ve needed him to break long touchdowns recently. Sategna has 65 catches for 948 yards and seven scores this season as he’s topped the 100-yard mark in three of OU’s last five games.

Sategna had three catches for 109 yards and a TD in OU’s 17-6 win over Missouri. His 87-yard catch-and-run TD in the second quarter sparked OU to victory over the Tigers. Against LSU, Sategna had nine grabs for 121 yards. He scored the game-winner there too as he broke a 58-yard TD pass with 4:16 to go for the win. Alabama has the players to shut Sategna down. But he doesn’t need much space.

Key to the game

This one could be a slog. There’s a reason the over/under is just 40.5 points. That total is at least seven points lower than any of the three other first-round games.

Oklahoma won the game in Tuscaloosa with just 212 total yards. Part of that was due to the three turnovers it forced, putting the Sooners in advantageous field position. But Oklahoma ran 51 plays to get those 212 yards. Alabama, meanwhile, averaged 5.4 yards per play. Only Tennessee has more yards per play against the Sooners this year. Can Alabama replicate that even without much help from the run game? Without Miller on the field, the Tide gave the most carries to Daniel Hill (15) as he scored twice.

There’s a reason this game has the closest spread of any first-round game as well. We lean Alabama, betting that Oklahoma won’t be able to replicate its turnover luck. But it will hardly be a surprise if the Sooners advance to the Rose Bowl.

Alabama at Oklahoma: College Football Playoff players to watch, key to game

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