Indiana routs Alabama 38-3 in Rose Bowl behind Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza: Live updates and reaction
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:The Athletic Live Team and more
The Hoosiers advance to face Oregon in the semifinals
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Follow live as the No. 9 Crimson Tide take on the undefeated No. 1 Hoosiers in Pasadena
The Athletic Live Team and more
January 1, 2026 at 3:22 PM EST
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A Crimson crossover
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Both Kalen DeBoer and Curt Cignetti had unorthodox journeys up the coaching ranks to get to this point — including stops at the school they now face. Cignetti was Nick Saban’s first wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Alabama before leaving to coach at Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2011. DeBoer was the offensive coordinator for at Indiana in 2019, which vaulted him into his first FBS head coaching job, but that was after he spent years cutting his teeth at the NAIA and Division III ranks in his native South Dakota. Here’s DeBoer on what that perspective brought him:
💬 “I think when you go through the ranks — and Coach Cignetti — I think you learn how to maximize what you have. And I think that might be the resources. That might be coaching staff.
“I think there's an appreciation you have when you get to this level and the FBS, the FBS school where you have people now, just managing people and trying to get them aligned and heading in the same direction.
“But I think schematically, I think there's, again, you trying to take advantage of the one or two players that were stars maybe that you had at the smaller college, but then you know you grow your systems to this point now where you have a lot more great players.
“And he's done a great job again maximizing, teaching fundamentals. You can see it with turnover margin. You can see it in just how they execute, whether it be run game or their defensive scheme. He's getting so much out of his players. That's a credit to him and what he's done.”
Solving the mystery of Indiana's defense
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For as much deserved praise as Fernando Mendoza gets, Indiana wouldn’t be the undefeated No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff without its elite defense. What makes it so great — and has defensive coordinator Bryant Hines as a favorite to win the Broyles Award this year?
The rain has completely stopped, the clouds are lifting, and the sun is starting to peek out was we near one hour until kickoff. Players going through warmups like star Indiana linebacker Aiden Fisher here seem to have no issue pivoting on the playing surface itself. That massive gray tarp behind the “College GameDay” set appears to have done its job.
Pregame scene at field level
The Athletic
Two of the power brokers of Alabama football, athletic director Greg Byrne and general manager Courtney Morgan, share a pregame chat on the Crimson Tide sideline.
Heisman winners in Rose Bowl history
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Technically, the last Heisman Trophy winner to play in the Rose Bowl the same year he won the award was Alabama’s DeVonta Smith in 2020. But that Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2021, was played in Texas due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last Heisman Trophy winner to play in the Rose Bowl at the Rose Bowl itself was 2017 winner Baker Mayfield in the Jan. 1, 2018 double-overtime classic, when Mayfield’s Oklahoma Sooners lost to Georgia, 54-48.
Today, Mendoza will become the 20th Heisman Trophy winner to play in the Rose Bowl, joining the likes of Mayfield, Marcus Mariota, Charles Woodson and Archie Griffin.
Mendoza on Indiana’s superpower
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What's Indiana’s secret to success? Fernando Mendoza thinks he knows the answer:
💬 “I think it's really important because I believe our superpower as a team is we have the glue. That helps our resiliency and also helped us play through gritty moments.
“It's really caring about the guy next to you. If you have one of your best friends lining up next to you ready to go to war, ready to die for you, it makes you play a little bit harder.
“In contrast, if you have another coworker or acquaintance, someone who you might know but you might not lay your life and body on the line for them. So I think all of us have a really, really strong genuine connection. It helps us play harder for each other and also helps us communicate more efficient with each other. We're able to talk to each other in different aspects. Being so close friendship-wise, we all know that, hey, if he gets on me or if I get on him, it's not that personal. We're still going to be best friends or really good friends. Just we want to achieve our goal.”
QB Profile: Ty Simpson
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At one point during the season, it looked like Ty Simpson would be one of Fernando Mendoza’s fiercest challengers for the Heisman Trophy. But Simpson’s performance tailed off near the end of the season, as did Alabama’s as a whole. Still, the quarterback displayed the talent that still has him projected as a potential first-round pick in the NFL draft, throwing for 232 yards and two touchdowns in Alabama’s first-round Playoff win over Oklahoma.
Overall, Simpson has a 64.1 completion percentage, 3,500 passing yards, 28 touchdowns and five interceptions this season. Mendoza heaped praise on Simpson when asked about him earlier this week:
💬 “Ty Simpson is an amazing player. I've seen him or heard about him for a long time now. I watched the whole entire 2022 Elite 11 class, and not only was he a great quarterback but seemed like he was a great guy. ... I think that's why he's such a great leader of that team in which people see he's authentic, genuine, and also one of the best quarterbacks in the nation, no doubt about it.”
A battle of elite WRs
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If the weather permits, we could see a battle between two of the best wide receiver groups in the country today.
Indiana is led by Omar Cooper Jr. — who made the catch of the year in a last-second win against Penn State — and Elijah Sarratt, who caught the game-winning touchdown from Fernando Mendoza in the Big Ten Championship Game.
Alabama, as is customary for a Kalen DeBoer team, has a loaded wide receiver group with Germie Bernard and Isaiah Horton leading the way of late, as well as highly-regarded true freshman Lotzeir Brooks making an impact. The Crimson Tide also got star tight end Josh Cuevas back healthy for the Playoff.
But what about Ryan Williams? After a breakout true freshman season, the five-star recruit has regressed in 2025 and has been little-used in Alabama’s passing game in recent weeks. DeBoer, however, has continued to preach patience when it comes to Williams.
Pregame scenes at the Rose Bowl
Scott Dochterman / The Athletic
We're less than 90 minutes until kickoff now!
QB profile: Fernando Mendoza
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The reigning Heisman Trophy winner gets an opportunity to validate that on the biggest stage of his career today. Fernando Mendoza enters with a 71.5 completion percentage, 2,980 passing yards, 33 touchdowns and just six interceptions this season. He has been limited by the better defenses he has faced this season but has continually shown the ability to produce game-winning drives when called upon, which he did against Oregon, Iowa, Penn State and Ohio State.
Nobody is overlooking the transfer from Cal now. Just ask Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson — who has faced Heisman runner-up Diego Pavia each of the past two years:
💬 “(Mendoza’s) honestly the most elite quarterback that we faced since Coach DeBoer's been here. He's just elite. We got to try to affect them early, and it'll pay off for us in the end for sure.”
Scott Dochterman
Magic Johnson is here at the Rose Bowl.
Can Alabama run the ball?
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For most of the eight teams still alive in the College Football Playoff, you have to squint and look closely to find a weakness. Alabama is different. The Crimson Tide offense simply cannot run the ball. They had minus-3 rushing yards in the SEC Championship Game against Georgia and then mustered only 28 rushing yards in their first-round Playoff game against Oklahoma.
That puts a lot of pressure on quarterback Ty Simpson and Alabama’s group of wide receivers — and that’s even before we get to Indiana’s notoriously stingy defense (No. 3 in total defense, No. 2 in scoring defense). The good news is that starting running back Jam Miller, who missed the SEC Championship Game and only played 18 snaps against Oklahoma, should be a full go. That is part of several crucial returns to health for Alabama in this game, as Kalen DeBoer touched on this week:
💬 “Having these guys, first of all, back but having them back at the level of health that they are, it leads to, again, our own momentum internally, whether it's this game, but more importantly even the practices and just the level of intensity that they're bringing, how more fresh they feel. You can feel it.”
How did Indiana do this?
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It’s difficult to overstate just how much of a perennial punching bag Indiana football was for so many years — and the unbelievable turnaround the Hoosiers have accomplished in just two seasons. Yes, it started from and still owes a lot to Curt Cignetti’s swagger. But that’s just where the story begins, Scott Dochterman writes.
Field conditions
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An example of a puddle on the Rose Bowl field, this one behind Alabama’s sideline. Fortunately, the actual playing surface doesn't look this bad, at least from what I can make out from the sideline.
These towels need a towel
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Good news for Indiana fans: The Hoosiers’ trademark rally towels have made it to Pasadena and are lining the Indiana side of the Rose Bowl. Bad news: I don't know whose idea it was to lay these out on seats last night, but after a night of heavy rain, these towels are absolutely drenched, so we’ll see how much they actually get used.
Alabama Rose Bowl history
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It has been only two years since Alabama was last in the Rose Bowl, but it may well have been 58 years. That was a game featuring Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide against Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan, with the Wolverines prevailing 27-20 in an instant classic in overtime. Saban retired a week later, Harbaugh won a national championship and then left for the NFL, and Kalen DeBoer departed national runner-up Washington to replace Saban at Alabama.
Befitting a team whose fight song mentions the Rose Bowl by name, Alabama has appeared in this game eight times, as well as the 2009 BCS Championship game in Pasadena, which marked the first of Saban’s six national title triumphs with the Crimson Tide.
