Oklahoma’s Alabama upset proves Brent Venables and the Sooners are truly 'hard to kill'

As the greatest compliment, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables is a cockroach, and so is his team. 

There have been times this season, and definitely the last, that the Sooners looked dead, or at least should be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, with the pearly gates being Venables' buyout as OU starts searching for a new coach. Yet, with two games left in the regular season, the Sooners are more alive than ever in the hunt to make the College Football Playoff.

The No. 11 Sooners weren't supposed to have a chance against might Alabama with three starting defenders out and going into Bryant-Denny Stadium, where the Crimson Tide had won 17 in a row, which was the longest active home winning streak in the country. With two losses, the Sooners' CFP chances were on life support -- and like it's already been emphasized, Venables' team won't die. Then OU took down No. 4 Alabama 23-21 on Saturday.

Why the Sooners are embracing the 'Hard to kill' motto

“We have a bunch of young men who were raised right,” Venables said postgame. “We have recruited a lot of tough guys that believe in themselves and each other in how we do, what we do. Try to put a lot of pressure on them constantly as we develop our team. At the end of the day, the guts and the will and the edge and the belief that comes from our players. We try to create vision for them. I think it starts with that. Then it's belief.

"Then you have to be able to kick the door and take the action that it requires. Then be the one that kind of lines up nose-to-nose. It’s about competing and competing to win. Everything has magnitude and everything matters. Our players have really bought into that. They haven’t flinched. When the fire is raging, when things are looking a little desolate, they have responded several times this year-- certainly have the last couple of weeks when it has mattered the most.”

When the Sooners got on the plane to Tuscaloosa, they all wore black shirts with white lettering that read, “HARD TO KILL.” They just got the shirts on Friday night, but they were all already familiar with the saying that has become their motto for the season.

Players and coaches donned the shirts while entering Bryant-Denny Stadium, then onto Nick Saban Field during pregame warmups. Hours later, after proving once again it was a factual statement, OU players were still repping the shirt during postgame interviews.

“You’re trained for these moments,” OU defensive tackle David Stone said. “That’s the biggest thing I can say. You’re trained for it. ‘Hard to kill’ is a daily theme. You can’t practice soft and be like, ‘Ahh, I’m hard to kill.’ You’re not really working for it. We work hard, man. It’s a lot of stuff that the media or the people outside the stadium don’t see.”

The Sooners aren't done surviving, though, even if they have escaped their greatest predators. OU finishes the season with back-to-back home games against Missouri and LSU, respectively. If the Sooners win out, they will certainly be in the College Football Playoff during a season many expected their leader to be fired during. But Brent Venables is hard to kill, and so is his team.

“We know what we’re up against and what the stakes are if we do lose,” OU quarterback John Mateer said. “We’re fighting to survive, and that’s where it comes from.

“I just say, when you have belief, it’s a powerful thing. We don’t fold, and we don’t turn on each other when anything goes bad. We know we’re playing good teams, and I think we’re lead by a great human and a great coach in Coach Venables and all the other coaches around him. They give us the right message.”