LOS ANGELES — Nick Saban coached his final game for Alabama just two years ago in the Rose Bowl. Although the sport didn’t know it at the time, an era ended for the 21st century’s most dominant program to date when Jalen Milroe got stopped on fourth down in overtime by Michigan.
Two years can be a blink and an eternity in college football. The Crimson Tide (No. 11 AP, No. 9 CFP) are returning to the Rose Bowl’s storied turf Thursday, but they’re underdogs against unbeaten Indiana (No. 1 AP, No. 1 CFP), which has improbably constructed a burgeoning superpower from the ground up during those two years.
Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson sounded a bit like so many opponents of the Crimson Tide (11-3) over the past two decades Tuesday when he described the challenge of facing the Hoosiers (13-0) in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal doubling as the 112th edition of the Granddaddy of Them All.
“They’re the No. 1 team for a reason, and we know it,” Simpson said. “As a coach’s son, I know that to get that program to where it is in that time frame is just super-impressive. It’s going to be a tough challenge, but that’s what we live for.”
Alabama reached six Playoff finals and won three titles under Saban during the postseason format’s first decade. Two years into the nearly impossible task of following Saban, coach Kalen DeBoer has had significant success, just not to the level expected at this program.
After going 9-4 last year, the Tide began this season with an embarrassing loss to Florida State, and they got blown out by Georgia in the SEC title game.
Alabama still made the CFP for the first time under DeBoer, who realizes he won’t win over his new fan base without a strong national title run. The Tide’s solid comeback victory at Oklahoma in the first round suggested they have the potential to ruin the Hoosiers’ perfect season, yet DeBoer understands the enormity of the task facing his team.
“They’re undefeated for a reason,” DeBoer said. “They’ve got a very good football team. They play well. From our standpoint, there’s a belief in who we are. And that’s what you really you’ve got to focus on is: Who are we? What we’ve been through, and how we’ve overcome is what we’re proud of.”
It’s a decade too soon to know whether Curt Cignetti is building the sport’s next titan, but there’s no denying his first two seasons have been more impressive than Saban’s start at Alabama, when Cignetti was a Tide assistant.
Indiana is the CFP’s top seed and the Big Ten champion after its spectacular regular season culminated with a paradigm-shifting victory over Ohio State in the conference title game. The Hoosiers are in the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1968, and they’re the AP’s No. 1 team for the first time, a distinction Alabama has held 141 times.
The Hoosiers made the Playoff last season, but the Rose Bowl is the CFP debut for Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the California transfer who has taken Indiana’s offense to an elite level.
“We want to win the national championship, but playing in the Rose Bowl, getting a chance to play a historic team like Alabama, it’s something that’s really important to appreciate,” Mendoza said. “The Big Ten championship was sweet, and it left a good taste in our mouth, but we’ve had a month for Coach Cignetti to light a fire under us and remind us we need to win the Rose Bowl. If we don’t, this season was great, but it isn’t what we want it to be.”
These schools have been playing football since the 19th century, but they’ve never played each other.
The winner faces either Oregon or Texas Tech next week in the Peach Bowl for a spot in the national championship game.
