When Alabama and Oklahoma met in the Orange Bowl following the 1962 season, the Crimson Tide blanked the Sooners 17-0 behind 31 tackles by linebacker Lee Roy Jordan.
Nobody is expecting the second Alabama-Oklahoma matchup in the Orange Bowl to be anything like the first.
Tonight's national semifinal in Miami Gardens, Florida, not only pits the No. 1 Crimson Tide (13-0) and the No. 4 Sooners (12-1) but the nation's top two scoring offenses this season, with Oklahoma having averaged 49.5 points per game and Alabama having averaged 47.9. A score more similar to Oklahoma's 45-31 upset of Alabama in the Sugar Bowl after the 2013 season would appear to be more in order, with Las Vegas oddsmakers having set the total points scored tonight at 77.
Oklahoma scored 48 points in last season's Rose Bowl national semifinal against Georgia and lost.
"Things have definitely changed," second-year Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said. "The offensive numbers are so historic now, and it's not just among the top offenses. Everybody is better than they were 15 or 20 years ago. The numbers are better, and the game has changed.
"We've found a way to do it here, and we feel like we're still getting better."
Tonight's matchup also features the Heisman Trophy winner, Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray, and the Heisman runner-up, Alabama counterpart Tua Tagovailoa. No Football Bowl Subdivision quarterback has ever finished a season with an efficiency rating in excess of 200, but both Murray (205.7) and Tagovailoa (202.3) are currently above that lofty clip.
Alabama won the Southeastern Conference championship early this month over Georgia despite allowing 28 points in the title game, while Oklahoma won the Big 12 regular-season title with a 59-56 outlasting of West Virginia.
"Sometimes when you score more points, you're going to give up more points defensively because of the style the other team has to play," Tide coach Nick Saban said. "We're going to have to control this game to some degree on offense - being more physical and being able to execute and not giving them extra possessions.
"They've been able to outscore people, and our players understand that. What we can do to control that to some degree is going to be a real key to the game."
This pairing pits coaching opposites, with Oklahoma's Riley a 35-year-old offensive whiz and Saban a 67-year-old with decades of proven success as a defensive mastermind. Riley burst on the coaching radar this decade as East Carolina's offensive coordinator, and he spent two years at Oklahoma in that role before replacing Bob Stoops several weeks before the 2017 season.
Just 27 games into his head-coaching career, Riley has 24 wins and a pair of College Football Playoff appearances.
"A lot of these young coaches are very talented, dynamic guys who are doing a lot of creative things that are very challenging to whoever they are coaching against," Saban said. "Systematically, this is as well-conceived of an offense that we've had to play against in a long time. He is a very good play caller, and he is very good at utilizing the players he has.
"They always seem to have a complementary play to go with the last play."
Yet tonight will not be about the snazzy spread offense against an old-school attack, because Alabama's offense of 2018 looks nothing like Alabama's offense of five years ago. The Tide used a punishing ground game with play-action passing to win national championships in 2009, 2011 and 2012, but the evolution to where Alabama is today offensively can be traced back to the "Kick Six" loss at Auburn in 2013 and consecutive losses to Ole Miss in 2014 and '15.
When Alabama offensive coordinator Mike Locksley arrived as an offensive analyst in 2016, he watched Lane Kiffin mold then-freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts into a dual-threat weapon who could work at different tempos. Tagovailoa then supplanted Hurts, with Tagovailoa's arm giving Alabama's current offense the potential to achieve even more.
"That's what makes Coach Saban Coach Saban," Locksley said. "He's always going to find ways to improve. He's never really been big on complacency. Being a defensive guy, the things that give him trouble are the things he wants to see out of his offense.
"With the advent of the spread, the shotgun and the tempo - those are things that have given him trouble, and it's put together the philosophy of what he wants to be on offense."
Alabama versus Oklahoma.
Let the scoring begin.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.