PASADENA, Calif. — As the crimson and cream confetti fell late Thursday afternoon, Indiana celebrated milestones ranging from recent to long term to almost unthinkable.
The top-seeded Hoosiers not only won their first Rose Bowl and College Football Playoff game, and first bowl since the 1991 Copper Bowl. They also did so in dominating fashion against No. 9 seed Alabama, which is much more familiar with the stage and the type of beating that Indiana handed out. Indiana thumped Alabama 38-3 in the CFP quarterfinal, handing the Tide their first loss by 35 points or more since a 1998 game against Arkansas, and Alabama’s first loss of 30 points or more since the 1998 Music City Bowl against Virginia Tech.
“I’m usually watching Alabama in these moments, and they dominate people,” said wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr., who returned from an injury in the Big Ten championship to score Indiana’s first touchdown on a 1-yard catch. “So, the fact that we were able to come here and be able to be the team that beat Bama, it was a dream come true.”
Indiana advanced to face Oregon on Jan. 9 in the CFP semifinal at the Peach Bowl, a rematch of an Oct. 11 game that IU won 30-20 at Autzen Stadium.
Under transformative coach Curt Cignetti, Indiana is no stranger to lopsided wins, even against ranked teams. The Hoosiers beat then-No. 9 Illinois by 53 points in September. They won their fourth game against an AP top-11 opponent this season. But handing Alabama its worst defeat since before Hoosiers players were born felt different.
Cignetti, a former Alabama assistant under Nick Saban, said Indiana embraced “breaking their will,” a tenet of Saban’s teams. After going three-and-out on the opening possession, Indiana scored on six of its next seven drives.
“It takes a while,” Cignetti said. “It doesn’t happen in the first quarter, second quarter. It happens in the second half at some point. Hopefully, we were able to achieve that goal.”
Before reaching top gear, Indiana first had to overcome sluggishness that had plagued other top-four CFP seeds that received byes into the quarterfinal round. Last year on the same field, No. 1 Oregon fell behind Ohio State 34-0 before halftime in a 41-21 loss. After No. 2 Ohio State lost Wednesday and No. 4 Texas Tech fell earlier Thursday, Indiana needed to change the script.
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After a scoreless first quarter, the Hoosiers scored 24 unanswered points. Indiana held Alabama to 11 first downs and 3.9 yards per play.
“It was a fine balance of staying sharp and staying fresh,” defensive tackles coach Pat Kuntz said. “The advantage of not playing that extra game should be an ounce of recovery. You should have a little bit more freshness to you. Sometimes, there can be a lapse in your focus. … You always think about, ‘Is this going to be rusty?’ Our big thing was play fast, play physical.”
On Wednesday morning, Cignetti raised concerns about Indiana’s lackluster practices before it left for California and after arriving. Indiana responded with a productive walkthrough at SoFi Stadium later that day.
“Sometimes, my messaging is intended for the players to hear … because preparation’s hard to gauge,” Cignetti said.
Quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner, praised Cignetti for preventing complacency, noting the 26-day layoff since the Big Ten title game — Indiana had played just two games since Nov. 15 — was “very, very tough.” Cooper said the team focused more on film study than stressing their bodies.
After allowing two sacks on the opening drive, Indiana took control with run-pass balance (193 pass yards, 170 rush yards) and Mendoza’s typical precision passing (14-of-16), especially during the middle section of the game. Beginning with a scoring drive just before halftime, Indiana strung together four straight touchdown marches that spanned 58 yards or longer.
“We always take pride in being really good at the end of the second quarter, and the start of the third,” offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan told ESPN. “Us scoring that touchdown at the end of the second quarter was huge.”
Indiana moved closer to a goal few outside of the program thought possible, even after Cignetti guided the team to a record 11 wins and a CFP appearance in his debut season of 2024. If the Hoosiers beat Oregon again, they will be playing for a national title.
“We know it’s going to be a big challenge,” Shanahan said. “We know that they’re going to come in with a little chip on their shoulder too, with us beating them out there, but I think our guys will be up for it, and we’ll see how many things have they adjusted since our [first] game.”
Indiana came in as a touchdown favorite Thursday, and opened as a favorite for the Oregon contest, an unfamiliar position for a program that was the losingest in college football history before Cignetti arrived. Asked his reaction if told before the season that Indiana would win the Big Ten and beat Alabama by 35 points in the Rose Bowl, Kuntz smiled and said, “Quit gassing me up.”
“We like being the underdogs,” Kuntz said. “We like when people think that we’re just old Indiana. That’s all we need. Like, I hate it when we’re favored. I want us to be underdogs all the time. That’s our mentality, never satisfied.”
ESPN staff writer Paolo Uggetti contributed to this report.
