Andy & Ari On3 - Alabama ADVANCES in the CFP vs Oklahoma | Crimson Tide's BIG WIN over Sooners: INSTANT REACTION

Episode Date: December 20, 2025

Join Andy & Ari LIVE following the conclusion of Alabama at Oklahoma LIVE from Norman. As weather calls for a windy night at OU, how will that effect the teams? Can the Crimson Tide get the sour taste of the SEC Championship game out if its mouth and advance to the quarterfinals? Will Oklahoma and Brent Venables defend its home turf? Find out here to see who advances to face Curt Cignetti and the Indiana Hoosiers at the Rose Bowl. This show is presented by Modelo! Some things in life are just made for each other. Peanut Butter and jelly. Macaroni and cheese. Modelo and college football. If you’re watching this, it means you live and breathe football. All season long. You know what that makes you? A Full-Time Fan. Which means you deserve a Modelo. Because football wouldn’t be the same without you. Modelo is the official beer sponsor of The College Football Playoff. Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, IL Our show is also presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to an instant reaction edition of Andy and Arion 3 presented by BetMGM and by our friends at Maddo fans crack of Madelo because you're going to the Rose Bowl. You're keeping your coach. You were dead. And now you're back. 50 cent performed. 50 cent performed. Inspired Oklahoma for approximately two minutes. Two plays, two explosive plays. And then they're back. And then Alabama. is back it was kind of a while range of emotions of a game and i think part of it too is because like there was like a coaching search happening by every play and i don't know like but i may or may not have had a let kaelin devore walk column ready to uh ready to hit send on in the middle of the second quarter and i i'm sorry calen d'bore i uh i was not familiar with your game i'm actually kind of happy that you didn't write that because i'm not even sure i agree with it like i didn't agree with it either when i was but but at the at that point the the zeitgeist was going to be

Oklahoma just won this game 31 to 7 or whatever it is. And let's think about this. Oklahoma has a wide open, I believe he's a tight end who dropped the ball. If he catches that ball, they're going up 24-7. Then Alabama blocks a punt, kicks a field goal, gets a pick six, and all of a sudden, it is a game again. And Alabama was, I mean, they weren't perfect, but they did have, they had a 30-yard run at one point in the third quarter.

they did run a ball into the end zone which for them given what we've seen the last couple games was impressive yeah Andy I think that Alabama clearly is not a dominant team right and they won a playoff game on the road on the road first time a home playoff team is lost by the way last year was all blowouts all home team winners this year we got a very exciting game so yeah there's that it's going to be more regular now that the seating makes sense but you know the thing is that like Alabama fans need to like I resented this whole idea of like it's not good enough

it's not meeting the standard and I know that fans are going to do that and they should their team yep but this is a new college football Andy yeah this isn't the college football where you're just going to blow everybody out and beat the shit out of everybody every week no matter what I think like winning tough gritty games in the playoff even if it's

this team that we don't really think is going to win the national title still means something for your program and I think that Alabama has to rewire their brains a little bit to accept the that it's not going to look like it used to. Well, we can say that all we want, but they're in the final eight. They're playing the number one seed in the Rose Bowl.

If they play a good game against Indiana, they're going to have a chance. I don't think they should rewire their brains quite yet, is what I'm saying. No, I know, but I just feel like if you were on Twitter for the entire first half, you know, everyone's like, let the guy go, this sucks, we're cooked, this isn't good enough and all these different things.

And I get like, you're in the middle of the game, it's emotional. Right. You might take a step back. and think about it differently. But, like, just this whole idea and the buildup of the DeBoer to Michigan thing of like, well, is it that big of a loss? Would Alabama fans really be that upset? And it's like, can we take a step back and finally just say, you know,

Kaelin Jabor, good job. Yes. Has anybody said good job to the man? They already there. First time in two years. I think they did when he beat Georgia earlier this year. All right. Yeah, they're definitely saying it tonight.

Yeah. And, you know, you live to fight another day. And, you know, I don't know what this tournament's going to look like Andy in five, 10 years when we get more results and we understand, but maybe this is the beginning of a run, you know, and like that, you don't know what the runs are going to look like. Maybe there will be an unpredictable winner. Well, it's not like Alabama lacks for talent. Yeah, they have. They don't look explosive. No, and they don't, they can't run the ball. And that's the thing. Like, we'll handicap the matchup against Indiana. There'll be plenty of time for that. But if you can't

run the ball against Indiana, you're probably going to struggle. Like that, that, that needs to get fixed. And I don't know if that can be fixed in a week and a half. But they did what they had to do. And it's interesting because this game was was kind of similar to the first game between Oklahoma and Alabama, but in reverse. Like, turnovers are a matter of luck and happenstance sometimes. And in this particular case, John Mateer signals to a receiver, hey, I need you to do this on this play. Receiver misses the signal. Matier throws one route, receiver runs another, and it's a pick six. Oklahoma lost this game the way they won the last one. Yeah. So, you know, and then Tate Sandell misses a kick for Oklahoma, which he hadn't missed.

to kick since the first attempt all season. I think he missed one all year and two in the last four minutes of the game. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it's a tough break. And obviously, you know, these games are games of margins. But I do think that Oklahoma should also be happy with their season. You know, and I know that like, you know, we're all programmed to think if you don't go to the national title game, your season was a failure. But when you think about where Oklahoma was as a program as they walk off the field near Alabama. Jeremy Bernard is walking off the field right now. And that, that, he made the catch right over there. And he is getting, he is getting showered with affection by the Alabama fans.

And rightfully so. But like I said, Oklahoma, probably disappointed tonight. Maybe some things that you wish wouldn't have happened. Like, I don't know, forgetting to play football for two quarters. Yeah. But, you know, when you zoom out a week from now, you're going to say, hey, we didn't know if we were going to make the playoff. We didn't know if we were going to want them as our coach anymore. And, you know, you make the playoff.

You go nine and three against a very hard schedule. And you build off that. And you got a home playoff game. You got 50 cent. in the building. I will say, Oklahoma showed out for this thing. The town of Norman,

the University of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma fan base, this was a spectacular college football atmosphere. You're a national college football reporter, so you have to say, shouldn't all games be on home sites? Yeah, just do it. Just say it.

Everyone else did it. Well, because it's the truth. Yeah. Like, I remember when they announced the 12th team playoff, and Bob Bolesby was the Big 12th commissioner, he's one of the people who helped design it. And I asked, well, why don't you just put the first two rounds or the first three rounds on campus.

And he acted like I was insane for even asking the question. Well, you look like idiots now. It should be on home sites every single round until the final. Yeah. So, but I thought that was a, I don't know, high quality game. I thought it was entertaining in its own right. Yeah. I don't know if I looked at that and was like,

wow, these teams are blowing me away. But I think that there's something to be said in this new era where there isn't a talent gap the way that there used to be and, you know, winning gritty games. and, you know, winning the turnover battle and going on the road and getting a W. Like, I think that that matters. I think that's important. I think context in everything that we do moving forward is going to be different. And I think we all, not just Alabama fans, but everybody who consumes college football,

people are like, these are two insanely flawed teams that shouldn't be in it. Welcome to the 12 team era. Yeah, you're going to have always going to be 12. And if it's 16 next year, there'll be more flawed teams. Like it's like, so the flaws make for fun football sometimes. And I got to say, it wasn't all fun tonight. Like both teams. seemed allergic to catching the ball.

Yeah. At times. Bad draw, and bad turnovers. The punter like fumbled the ball before getting it blocked. I said blocked a punt, but that's really, it was blocked technically,

but it happened after he dropped the ball on the floor and then picked it back up again. So, you know, I thought it was a really nice beginning to what should be an amazing college football playoff run. And, you know, congrats to Alabama for,

for advancing. And who knows, man, maybe Indiana's in for a fight. I hope they are. I hope it's a great game. And I hope all of these games are fun. And I know we've,

poohed the Tulane Ole Miss game and the James Madison Oregon game. I hope they're fun too. Like Ari and I, when we're done here, we're driving south. We're going to college station. We will be in college station when that game kicks off in like 12 hours. I'm going to be the biggest passenger princess you've ever seen. I pack slippers.

I'm not driving. He's going to drive us and I'm going to nap. I have so many podcasts loaded up. Yeah. But no, it's going to be a really fun weekend and it's just starting. Like I was saying before, this was an appetizer. It was a very good appetizer. This is a hearty appetizer. And I feel like the game we're going to be at tomorrow. like outback cheese fries or something really substantial.

You don't even want to go out there and throw the, you know, the blooming onion out there. We don't want to tease people after midnight. But like it's, uh, it's going to be a fun weekend. And, you know, the big game tomorrow that we're going to be at. I can't wait to be there. But this is, this is amazing. What this does, what we've seen tonight is going to have a ripple effect.

Probably isn't the right word. It'll have a, you know, sonic boom effect across the college football because it does feel like Michigan was waiting to talk to Caitlin, Yeah. Kailin Dabor is busy, guys. Yeah. I don't think you're going to get to talk to him. Yeah. Cailin Dabor is playing in a game on January 1st and the transfer portal opens on January

2nd. I don't think he's going to be your next coach. And it might be a night kickoff. So I don't know if he can get ready for the portal. Well, it's going to be 2.30 Pacific. Oh, yeah, you're bad at time zones. Rose Bowl, got it. So what time is at Eastern and can he hit the portal at night? 5.30 and I don't know.

Probably I'm sure that there's a PJ that can take him back to Ann Arbor, but I don't think it's going to happen. So if I were an Arizona State fan, that would concern me right now. Arizona State fans feels like the guy if DeVore's not. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if this whole thing was imagined in terms of like, even if they would have lost, anything would have changed, but it was kind of

amusing to me watching ASU fan outwardly rooting for Alabama to win. Yeah. Because, you know, they're like, we don't want to lose or sorry to lose. So lose. Yeah, not to win. Yeah. So they didn't want their coach to be gone, but who knows what Kenny's going to do. We'll see in the next 48 hours, probably. Yeah, because if he says, if he doesn't go,

then that search gets a little while. You might even, you know, going to next week, you know, Biff Pogie? I don't know. At least a year of Biff Pogie is the Michigan head coach. Andy, we have an hour long podcast. No sleeves. Like, you know, don't give away all of our content before tomorrow.

But who knows what could happen tomorrow, are you? That's the, that's the beauty of this sport. This is a very strange, very wild sport. You saw it tonight. Alabama was dead. 17 nothing dead. I mean, people were saying, blowout in the press box and they end up winning by 10 you know writing writing columns about how

they should let their coach go who who would have done that i don't know some idiot it was never published never published never if it was never published it never happened it'd be a hell of a book to go back in time and like run all the columns that we've written in press boxes and then not ran well i i just was sort of imagining what the alabama people would say if this game ended like 31 to 7 but it didn't rie no it didn't and kailan abhor and his staff did a great job of calming this team down. Ty Simpson did an excellent job. Because, I mean, things were going wrong in bunches for Alabama.

Yeah. And they figured it out. Yeah, I mean, they didn't get a first down until the second quarter. Yeah. So, you know, and I also think maybe that there's an overarching college football thing to take away from this game, which is, can we not fire our coaches every five minutes to? Like, everybody's on the hot seat all the time. I'm talking to the wrong people, aren't I? Yes, you are.

Okay. Fire away. We're talking to Alabama fans, Oklahoma fans, and fans of schools like that. I mean, both of these coaches have been on the quasi-hot hot seat. This year. This year. And I don't think I could say. We run the Pete Nacos.

If they fired this coach, here's what the buyout would be story for both of them. Andy. It's rare to say this when a season ends for a team. But I think this will be correct when the dust settles and people in Norman get a good night's sleep. I think it's been a successful season for both teams that played on this field tonight. I would agree with that. Yeah. And one of them's continuing Alabama headed to the Rose.

Bowl to play Indiana. Their coach is probably staying in Tuscaloosa. They're going to sleep well tonight. The Sooners, you can get back here. You can do this again. Yeah, you saw how much was accomplished in one year, Andy. Meanwhile, our in playoff venture is only beginning because we are in college station. That is where you'll see us next. Miami and Texas A&M. Tomorrow we'll talk to you after that game. Thank you.