Indiana Cements Contender Status by Dominating Alabama
The Indiana Hoosiers are one of the most fun stories in college football, but that doesn't always equal a good football team. Two years ago, the program was in the gutter. Now, they're the number one seed, a win away from the National Championship, and just handed Alabama one of the most humbling defeats in program history.
Indiana embarrasses Alabama in CFP
Alabama was probably a little underrated at ninth in the nation. The committee seemed to undervalue them early on, and ended up ranking them ninth after their SEC Championship loss. Regardless, they seemed like a potential upset candidate over number one Indiana.
After all, one program is and always has been on the pedestal of college football, and the other is two years removed from being dead last. But on Thursday night, Indiana looked like the pinnacle, and Alabama looked like it had work to do.
Led by a wonderful Fernando Mendoza outing (more touchdowns than incompletions), the Hoosiers delivered a 38-3 domination to the Crimson Tide. Never before have the Tide experienced such a lopsided loss in postseason play. They've never been beaten quite this badly when it counts.
The Tide were held scoreless in the first quarter, and a 3-0 deficit prompted head coach Kalen DeBoer to get aggressive. He attempted a fourth-and-1 from his own 34-yard line, which failed and led to a short field and a quick score. Things continued to get out of hand from there.
"Our coaches did a great job at putting a great game plan together for us," receiver Germie Bernard said, according to ESPN. "But it just comes down to us being able to execute it. And we didn't execute to our best abilities. [Indiana] capitalized off all the mistakes we made."
Indiana will now face number five Oregon, fresh off a dominant win of their own. They shut out Texas A&M, so this could be a very low-scoring affair. Either way, Oregon is the highest remaining seed aside from the Hoosiers, so this could be the toughest test the Hoosiers face. Ole Miss (six) and Miami (10) remain on the other side of the bracket.
Alabama coach addresses ugly loss
The Alabama Crimson Tide rarely lost like this in the Nick Saban era. No one could've truly followed in his footsteps, but Kalen DeBoer has tried. He's 19-8 in two seasons since taking over, but he has yet to really have that signature postseason. This year, they fell short again.
"It may not feel like it when you're in this moment right now and what happened today, but I can tell you it's a fine between being here and being at the top," DeBoer said. "We got to put the work in, you got to believe, you got to be consistent, you got to have discipline and we'll get back to work and start all over again."
The Crimson Tide missed the playoffs last season, DeBoer's first. So in that sense, they did make some progress. However, for Alabama, it's about results, not growth. Nevertheless, they must now look to the future. That apparently means really getting down into the details for everyone involved.
"Go back to starting over from scratch with putting the people around you -- the right people -- and committing to something. A common goal together and the actions following it," the coach said.
The Crimson Tide, thanks to DeBoer being an actually decent coach and the fact that they will always be able to attract talent, will be fine. But the longer these things happen under DeBoer, the more restless some boosters might get. For now, there's no need to panic, but the standards remain incredibly high down south.
