Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley and Alabama head coach Nick Saban had a joint teleconference Sunday afternoon to begin talks about the Orange Bowl between the Sooners and Crimson Tide. Here are the three most intriguing things from the conversation.

Game No. 14: vs. No. 1 Alabama (13-0) – Orange Bowl

Take No. 1: OU’s best football ‘is still out there’

If there’s one constant we’ve heard from Riley is he believes two things regarding his squad. No. 1, the defense has played a big role during the season. And No. 2, the best is still yet to come regarding OU playing a complete game.

Being an early 14-point underdog to top-ranked Alabama doesn’t change anything in that regard.

“We just go about our business the way that we always do,” Riley said. “We've got a lot of respect for the team we're getting ready to play. No question about that. We've got a formula that we believe in, and we've got a program that's used to winning and players that are used to winning. We know it's gonna be a great challenge but we're gonna go prepare like we do.

“Our goal for us will to be at our very best. We can't control any of the outside factors. It's for us to be at our very best. I feel like despite some of the great things that this team's been able to accomplish this year, that our best football is still out there. I feel like we're heading in that direction. We'll do that and let it fall the way it falls.”

The college football playoff committee admitted the big plays the OU defense has made in the last couple of games was an encouraging sign and a small part of why the Sooners were given the No. 4 seed instead of No. 5 Georgia.

Take No. 2: Tagovailoa injury update

Outside of that, the biggest thing about Riley and Saban was them giving updates to key injured personnel. We’ll start with Bama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

Off throughout the SEC championship vs. Georgia, Tagovailoa suffered a high ankle sprain. It took a memorable second-half comeback led by backup quarterback Jalen Hurts to secure the top spot for the Tide.

It does sound like Tagovailoa will be back against the Sooners, though.

“We did an MRI on his ankle this morning. He had a high ankle sprain,” Saban said. “We have a great medical staff here and they scope those things to get them to come back together a little bit quicker. It's usually about a two-week deal. We'll reevaluate him in two weeks and see where he is. Very similar injury to what Jalen had, and it took him a couple weeks to come back as well.”

Take No. 3: Wait-and-see with Brown

From quarterback to receiver with the injury update with OU’s Marquise Brown. He was injured on the final play of the third quarter and on crutches and a walking boot following the Sooners victory against Texas.

Riley has been pretty coy about injury updates throughout the season. Nothing changed Sunday in discussing Brown.

“I don't know yet. We've done a few preliminary tests that we did yesterday afternoon. Did a few more this morning,” Riley said. “Gonna meet with the doctors in the next couple of days and see where we're at. It was certainly a significant enough injury that there was no way he was gonna be able to return in the game. The extent of that is still a little bit unknown.”

OU was able to find other weapons with CeeDee Lamb and Grant Calcaterra combining for the three touchdowns Saturday, but it would obviously be a big blow to not have the man known as Hollywood out there vs. Bama.