{"id":486208,"date":"2026-01-02T03:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T03:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/486208\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T03:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T03:36:22","slug":"rose-bowl-2026-indiana-crushes-alabama-to-advance-in-playoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/486208\/","title":{"rendered":"Rose Bowl 2026: Indiana crushes Alabama to advance in playoff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After a night of rain in Pasadena, the Indiana Hoosiers washed away the weight of history.<\/p>\n

Entering the Rose Bowl,<\/a> College Football Playoff teams coming off first-round byes were winless. At the start of the season, the Hoosiers led college football with the most all-time losses. During their sole previous Rose Bowl appearance in 1968, the Hoosiers lost to USC.<\/a><\/p>\n

Indiana\u2019s football program spent most of its time stuck in the Big Ten conference basement, but that era is over.<\/p>\n

Now, with new blood infused by head coach Curt Cignetti<\/a> and an offense led by Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, the Hoosiers have turned the page and shattered expectations.<\/p>\n

After a quarter of brushing off their rust following a three-week break, No. 1 Indiana rolled to a 38-3<\/a> Rose Bowl victory over No. 9 Alabama Thursday afternoon in front of a crowd of 90,278. It is the largest postseason margin of defeat in Crimson Tide history.<\/p>\n

When an ESPN reporter asked Cignetti moments after the win how his team managed to handle the Rose Bowl pressure and proved the moment wasn\u2019t too big for them, he responded, \u201cWhy should it be too big, because our name\u2019s Indiana?<\/p>\n

\u201d… We\u2019ve come through in clutch moments. I\u2019m proud of the way they\u2019ve responded.\u201d<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Indiana <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"PASADENA, <\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

\"Indiana <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

\"Fernando <\/p>\n

5 <\/p>\n

\"Indiana <\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Indiana coach Curt Cignetti is showered in rose petals as he lifts the Leishman Trophy after the Hoosiers\u2019 win. (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) 2.<\/strong> Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza throws a touchdown pass in the second quarter. (Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times) 3.<\/strong> Indiana offensive lineman Carter Smith celebrates while lifting the Rose Bowl trophy. (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) 4.<\/strong> Fernando Mendoza celebrates with a rose in his mouth after Indiana\u2019s win. (Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times) 5.<\/strong> Indiana defensive lineman Daniel Ndukwe tackles Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson in the second quarter. (Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

Indiana scored its first touchdown on a 21-yard pass from Mendoza to Charlie Becker to make it 10-0. It was the first touchdown scored by a Hoosier at the Rose Bowl in program history, the perfect way to establish Indiana\u2019s domination.<\/p>\n

Indiana\u2019s defense established its dominance during a pivotal stretch in the second quarter when Alabama could not afford to let the Hoosiers stretch their lead.<\/p>\n

Facing fourth-and-one at the Alabama 34, Cignetti called timeout when it was clear the Tide were in a trick play formation. After the timeout, Alabama tried to get the Indiana defense to jump offsides but couldn\u2019t get a penalty and burned a timeout of its own. The teams lined up one more time on fourth down, with Crimson Tide running back Daniel Hill passing to receiver Germie Bernard. Indiana\u2019s Isaiah Jones and Rolijah Hardy combined to stuff Bernard for no gain and a game-defining turnover on downs.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cI really felt like, even during that point, I was committed to going for it and wanting to try to make it happen,\u201d Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said of the decision to go for it on fourth down. \u201cThat\u2019s where you\u2019ve got to be careful as a head coach when you make those decisions because it can go the other way.<\/p>\n

\u201c… We had to take advantage of every possession for it to end up the way we wanted it to.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hoosiers fans celebrated the early success after taking over the Rose Bowl on New Year\u2019s Day. The sea of cherry red fans planted their flag and made themselves heard. Any time the word Alabama was mentioned, Indiana fans booed and asserted home-field advantage. With the skies clearing after a morning of heavy rain, Hoosiers joyously broke out \u201cWho\u2019s your daddy?\u201d chants.<\/p>\n

Cignetti kept taking jabs at the Tide defense with heavy use of the run game early in the contest. When it was his turn to pass, Mendoza was nearly perfect. He finished 14 of 16 passing for 192 yards and three touchdowns. He was sacked three times, but Mendoza never turned the ball over.<\/p>\n

\"Indiana <\/p>\n

Indiana linebacker Rolijah Hardy tackles Alabama tight end Josh Cuevas after a reception in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s what you would always love to see as the head coach, things we used to preach when I was at Alabama, about changing the way they think, breaking their will, and that\u2019s the best way to do it, running the football,\u201d said Cignetti, who worked on the Alabama staff early in his career. \u201cIt takes a while. It doesn\u2019t happen in the first quarter, the second quarter, it happens in the second half at some point, hopefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendoza contributed to the strong Indiana run game, frustrating the gashed Tide defense. With all his receivers covered, he scrambled for a back-breaking eight-yard run in the third quarter to tighten Indiana\u2019s control of the game.<\/p>\n

The following play, Mendoza threw a 24-yard touchdown to Elijah Sarrat to make it 24-0. He finished with 38 rushing yards.<\/p>\n

Entering the game, Indiana wanted to contain Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson. He gave up a critical first-half fumble and struggled to find seams in the Indiana defense. Simpson said he sustained a cracked rib on a hit in the first half, which kept him out most of the second half.<\/p>\n

Crimson Tide second-string quarterback Austin Mack finished the game with 103 passing yards. Simpson finished the game with 67. Mack threw a 34-yard pass to Bernard in the third quarter, which led to a 28-yard field goal that made the score 24-3.<\/p>\n

The Hoosiers tacked on a Kaelon Black 25-yard rushing touchdown to make it 31-3. He finished the game with 99 yards and one touchdown.<\/p>\n

As clouds dissipated, the Hoosiers booked their ticket to the Peach Bowl, where they will face Oregon in their pursuit of the ultimate team award \u2014 the national championship.<\/p>\n

\"Indiana <\/p>\n

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti is showered in rose petals as he lifts the Leishman Trophy after the Hoosiers\u2019 win Thursday over Alabama in the Rose Bowl.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a night of rain in Pasadena, the Indiana Hoosiers washed away the weight of history. Entering the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":486209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[12955,1582,276,219671,219673,472,2862,9443,2961,224,2444,5337,6475,471,5338,6773,39338,22799,11016,219672],"class_list":{"0":"post-486208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-alabama","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-college-football-playoff-team","12":"tag-first-round-bye","13":"tag-history","14":"tag-indiana","15":"tag-indiana-hoosiers","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-times","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-night","21":"tag-no","22":"tag-pasadena","23":"tag-rain","24":"tag-rose-bowl","25":"tag-start","26":"tag-usc","27":"tag-winless"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115823416927357120","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}