It may not have ended the way they would have liked, but overall, the Oklahoma Sooners football team had a very successful season. The Sooners finished the season with a 10-3 record, and they were 6-2 in the SEC.

The Sooners finished the regular season ranked No. 8 and faced No. 11 Alabama in the first round of the College Football Playoff at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Dec. 19.

Oklahoma jumped out to an early 17-0 lead, but Alabama roared back to outscore the Sooners 34-7 the rest of the way and claimed a 34-24 victory. The Crimson Tide will play the No. 1-seed Indiana in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, at 2:00 p.m. Central on ESPN.

OU opened the game with scores on three of their first four possessions, highlighted by a John Mateer rushing touchdown, a 51-yard field goal from Tate Sandell and a second-quarter touchdown pass to Isaiah Sategna.

Alabama responded by scoring 17 points in the second quarter and the two teams were tied at halftime.

“Alabama has a really good football team and really good staff,” said OU head coach Brent Venables. “They were able to start to slowly surely creep back into the game. And we had a couple of ill-timed mistakes that they capitalized on, the pick-6 there, and going in 17-all in the half.”

The Crimson Tide led 27-17 after the third quarter, but the Sooners closed the gap in the fourth quarter behind a 37-yard touchdown reception by Deion Burks on the Sooners’ second play of the quarter.

Alabama answered on its next drive to seal the win.

“We just couldn’t dig ourselves out,” Venables said. “We end up scoring a touchdown there later in the quarter, but we couldn’t complement each other when we needed to the most and make the plays that we needed to and we have made all season.”

Venables said his team made way too many mistakes in the game.

“The turnovers, the penalties, the missed opportunities, the dropped punt, poor punt, the missed field goals,” he said. “Again, the poor penalties we had, and couldn’t get the stops when we needed to.”

Mateer completed 26 passes for 307 yards and two touchdowns, while also adding a score on the ground. Deion Burks led the receivers with a season-high 107 yards.

Defensively, the Sooners were led by redshirt junior Owen Heinecke, who posted a game-high seven tackles along with a sack, while four different Sooners recorded a sack: Peyton Heinecke, Kip Lewis, Taylor Wein and Marvin Jones Jr.

As negative as the outcome was, Venables did have some positive things to say about his team and the fine season they had.

“It doesn’t take away from, again, the pride I have for the group of seniors, the guys that won’t be here in the future,” Venables said. “I couldn’t be more proud of them, the deposit they chose to make. In an environment, a world where everybody’s trying to get theirs, this is a group of guys that chose not to take a withdrawal but leave a deposit and leave their mark, do the things that we needed them to do to help elevate this program moving forward just by putting their head down and loving each other, loving the opportunity, loving the brotherhood and loving the opportunity to fight for the Sooners.”

The Sooners’ season was highlighted by some big wins including a 24-13 victory over Michigan, a 24-17 win against Auburn, they beat Tennessee 33-27 and defeated Alabama the first time the two teams met in the regular season, 23-21.

There is a good core of players returning next season, barring any sort of mass exodus through the transfer portal, and Venables is optimistic about his team’s future.

“Our best days are sitting in front of us,” Venables said. “I really believe that. We’ve got a great foundation coming back, and I think a vision for what it needs to look like moving forward.”