Indiana are Rose Bowl victors

Pasadena, CA (News4UsOnline) – No. 1 Indiana remains undefeated after thrashing Alabama 38-3 in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal played at the Rose Bowl Stadium. 

“I thought our mindset was really good. I liked our prep, for the most part, once we knew who the opponent was. It was a hard-fought game early in the game,” Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti said.

“Alabama made some plays, they had us off balance offensively, they had a new all-up blitz. But we were able to kind of make the plays when we needed to and take it over in the second half. And you know it’s a great win for our football program,” he added. 

For at least a quarter, the Hoosiers and Crimson Tide played evenly, with both teams putting up the zero sign, the first time since 2000 that two teams playing in the Rose Bowl Game would go into the second quarter scoreless. 

The game itself would provide an interesting sidebar. On the first series of the game, Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, the star quarterback for Indiana, was sacked twice by Alabama’s defense. 

The sequence of plays, as it turned out, was nothing more than a mirage for the Crimson Tide. Mendoza and the Hoosiers took care of that issue, getting a field goal and then punching Alabama in the mouth with two touchdown passes thrown by Mendoza in the second period. 

Both were spectacular tosses by Mendoza. On his first scoring pass of the afternoon, Mendoza connected with Charlie Becker on a 21-yard strike across the middle.

On the Hoosiers’ second touchdown of the day, Mendoza found Omar Cooper Jr. in the back of his left side of the endzone for a 1-yard scoring pass. 

Before they knew what hit them, the Crimson Tide were down 17-0 going into halftime. The Mendoza-to-Cooper right before intermission appeared to have taken the sail out of the wings of the Crimson Tide and gave Indiana a whole lot of confidence to complete the job they started.  

“I’m very confident the way the team is playing,” Mendoza said. “It’s not just myself, I think our entire team and our coaching staff really enjoy football, and I think that’s why we work so hard at it. We work really hard every single day because not only do we enjoy football, we also enjoy winning. And we know what that takes. So every single day we’re always going to put our best foot forward.”

By beating Alabama, Mendoza and his teammates advance to play in a rematch against Oregon in a College Football Playoff semifinal game.  Alabama, well, the Crimson Tide and head coach Kalen DeBoer, they go home and try to rebuild.

“I think for us, it’s a lot of emotions right now shared in the locker room,” DeBoer said. “We can be upset because losing doesn’t sit well with us, and we can be frustrated about it, but that’s what our program is going to be, is upset when these types of situations happen. We’ve got to use it to fuel us moving forward.”