Alabama football coach Nick Saban tossed out oranges after his Crimson Tide's 45-34 outlasting of Oklahoma in Saturday night's Orange Bowl national semifinal.
Saban's headset didn't have it so easy.
After Alabama looked flawless in the game's first 17 minutes while building a 28-0 lead, the Tide had to work through an uncharacteristic rash of penalties and mental errors before turning back the Sooners. Saban's headset took the brunt of his wrath when he smashed it to the ground late in the second quarter.
"It was more fun throwing the oranges," Saban admitted in a news conference early Sunday morning.
Alabama has advanced to a fourth consecutive trip to the championship game of the College Football Playoff, and the top-seeded Tide (14-0) are facing a very familiar foe. Second-seeded Clemson (14-0) punched its ticket to next Monday night's title tilt Saturday afternoon with a 30-3 shellacking of No. 3 Notre Dame (12-1) in the Cotton Bowl.
The Tide defeated the Tigers in the championship game of the 2015 season and again in last season's Sugar Bowl semifinal, with Clemson prevailing in the title game of the 2016 season. Round four of this January rivalry will take place in Santa Clara, California, at Levi's Stadium, home of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers.
"This was a great win for our team, and I'm really proud of these guys for the way they've competed all season long," Saban said. "Oklahoma is a really good team and a really explosive team on offense, and I thought we did a great job of controlling the game with the way our offense played. The only time we got stopped was when we stopped ourselves with penalties and a couple of missed assignments.
"It was important that we got off to a good start and that we were able to get off the field on third down on defense. That was the biggest issue for us in the second half, because we couldn't get off the field on third down because of their quarterback scrambling."
Alabama finished with 528 yards and averaged 7.5 yards a play.
When Josh Jacobs took a short pass from Tua Tagovailoa and blasted through Oklahoma's secondary for a 27-yard touchdown, the Tide took their 28-0 advantage with 13:01 remaining before halftime. At that point, they had 239 total yards to Oklahoma's 24.
The No. 4 Sooners (12-2) pulled within 11 on three occasions in the second half, largely due to the wizardry of Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray, who threw for 308 yards and rushed for 109.
"It's not the result we wanted or expected," Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said. "It was kind of a tale of two different games for us. The start of the game - give Alabama credit, because they're a strong team, and they made a run at us, and we had a hard time breaking their string of momentum.
"We played much closer to what we're capable of in the last three quarters. We just dug ourselves too big of a hole."
Tagovailoa, the Heisman runner-up, completed 24 of 27 passes for 318 yards and four touchdowns and met with Murray after the game.
When asked about that encounter, Tagovailoa said, "Kyler and I just told each other 'great game,' and he said that he loved me, and I told him that I loved him, too. He had a great season. When you look at it, we're both competitors."
Jacobs, a junior from Tulsa, amassed 158 total yards against his home-state team, while Tide sophomore receiver DeVonta Smith tallied six catches for 104 yards and a score.
Alabama may have to face Clemson without outside linebacker Christian Miller. The fifth-year senior sustained a hamstring injury against the Sooners, but an MRI taken Sunday revealed a pull and not a tear, leaving him questionable for next Monday night.
Reaching the CFP title game has become an annual ritual for Saban's Tide, but Saturday night marked Oklahoma's third semifinal exit from the playoffs in four years and the second straight under Riley.
"We've got a bunch of Big 12 trophies," Riley said, "but we're going to hold that tall, skinny one here in a couple of years."
Tide tidbits
Alabama also took 28-0 leads this season against Louisiana and Tennessee. Tagovailoa has taken over the top spot in NCAA passing efficiency at 205.2, which would set a Football Bowl Subdivision single-season record, while Murray finished his season with a 199.2 clip. Tagovailoa has 3,671 passing yards this season, topping the 3,487 Blake Sims compiled for the Tide in 2014. Tagovailoa's 41 touchdowns this season rank second in Southeastern Conference history behind the 44 Drew Lock tallied for Missouri in 2017. Nine Alabama players had receptions against the Sooners, marking a season high.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.