Zac Alley can now be labeled as the defensive coordinator who held a No. 7 nationally ranked offense to three points, but on Saturday, he also added crowd control worker to his resumé.
With 28 seconds remaining, the majority of the 84,053 fans at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium failed to contain their excitement and rushed Owen Field well before the final whistle. Alley knew Alabama still had one timeout left and that OU was facing a third down, so he aided in the attempt to clear the field of all fans.
“It was really fun the second time,” Alley said of the field stormings. “The first time, I was trying to get everyone off the field. I’m thinking, ‘They’re going to take their last timeout and we’ve got to go back out on defense.’"
“I’m looking around, half of my guys don’t have their helmets, everything is going crazy. The second time was really fun, though.”
The storming started early and continued as the final whistle sounded, surrounding both Alley and the rest of the players on OU’s roster.
For sophomore quarterback Jackson Arnold, who rushed 25 times, it was not the hits from Alabama that made him sore. Instead, it was the fan who ambushed him and jumped on his back during the postgame celebration.
OKLAHOMA'S FANS RUSHED THE FIELD WITH 28 SECONDS LEFT ON THE CLOCK 😳 pic.twitter.com/EKmRCTeghU
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 24, 2024
“I’m really sore,” Arnold said. “I feel like I’m more sore from the crowd grabbing my arms and stuff.”
A slightly premature field storm before the real thing: pic.twitter.com/USiJlY7rGo
— Louis Raser (@LouisRaser) November 24, 2024
In many ways, the early field storm summed up the chaos of Oklahoma’s (6-5, 2-5 SEC) 24-3 win over then-No. 7 Alabama (8-3, 4-3) on Saturday. As did the ensuing post-game festivities, including the first field storming in Norman since 2000.
“You can’t blame them, they’re just excited,” head coach Brent Venables said of the fans’ early celebration. “Premature, but it was good, a good problem to have."
“I hope nobody gets fined. Don’t take it out of my pocket.”
during the game against Alabama on Nov. 23.
Sooner fans ripped off pieces of Owen Field to keep as memorabilia. They formed a large moshpit on the OU logo and took pictures with the fallen goalposts.
Redshirt senior tight end and Norman native Jake Roberts stood in the middle of a sea of Sooner fans getting pushed and having his helmet smacked. Senior linebacker Danny Stutsman donned a hat from Logie’s, a popular Campus Corner bar.
Meanwhile, five days after announcing his wife Julie’s cancer had returned and that she had surgery last week to remove a tumor, Venables stood with his two daughters, Laney and Addie, through the chaos.
The moment could easily be seen as a rewarding one with what the Venables family has gone through recently. Yet, OU’s head coach didn’t want the focus to be on him.
“It’s more about the players and just having a really cool moment…” Venables said post-game. “It was pretty magical. I was thinking about the players because they're the ones in the middle of that."
“It was like, ‘Oh, man, this is what we've been talking about, paying this incredible price for victory.’ And it finally (paid off).”
Oklahoma had been working up to the game through the bye week and up until Saturday. Venables even had his team watch the new movie Gladiator II on Friday night.
“Man, it was right on time,” Venables said of the film. “My man, Denzel Washington, over-delivered again.”
The scene in the locker room was just as rowdy as on the field. As Alley soaked in all the celebratory cigar smoke, he looked to the corner of the locker room where he believes he saw a few unsolicited visitors.
“I think we had like three or four frat guys who snuck in from somewhere I had never seen (them),” Alley said. “They were in the back, in the corner, somebody (must have) missed them in security.”
Whether it was on the field or in the locker room, Oklahoma enjoyed a chaotic night courtesy of its first win over an FBS team since Sept. 28. The Sooners are now bowl-eligible for the 26th consecutive season. They have a chance to carry their momentum over to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where they’ll face LSU next week.
There’s plenty of season left for Oklahoma and now, much to do to prepare for it.
But on Saturday, the focus for all members of OU’s program, including Venables, was on a long overdue celebration.
“Hey (Luke) Elzinga,” Venables shouted toward OU’s punter in the locker room on his postgame show. “Where are we going to be? Logie’s? Hold my spot.”
