Oklahoma Sooners-Alabama football

OU fans during the storming of the field after the game against Alabama on Nov. 23.

Oklahoma (6-5, 2-5 SEC) fans stormed the field after beating No. 7 Alabama (8-3, 4-3 SEC) on Saturday.

After winning just one Southeastern Conference game this season against Auburn on Sept. 28, the 24-3 victory against Alabama granted OU bowl eligibility.

“We said there wasn’t going to be anything easy about this season for us,” OU head coach Brent Venables said after the game. “I guess the harder it is, the more epic the story.”

The win was the first time an unranked OU team beat a top 10 team at home since the Sooners played then-No. 10 Nebraska in 1990. It was also the first field storming since Oklahoma beat Nebraska during the 2000 national championship run.

For OU, this has been a difficult season, losing multiple games after leading in the first half and facing the potential reality of not making a bowl game for the first time since 1998.

However, for Venables and his team, this represented the first time this season that OU was able to finish what it started.

“They punched first, they punched back,” Venables said. “Tonight, we finally punched last.”

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