The Hoosiers overwhelmed Alabama 38-3 in a Rose Bowl takeover

The takeover started before I could even leave town.

Standing at my AUS-LAX flight gate, the ratio of Indiana trident logos to Alabama gear was something like 12-to-1.

Hoosier fans were everywhere, starting at Bergstrom, aboard the plane, all over LAX and filling the streets of Pasadena. For a program that hadn’t seen this kind of success in multiple generations, the turnout was stunning. And cathartic.

ESPN’s Holly Rowe captured it perfectly, slowly panning her phone across the Rose Bowl crowd. “As you can see,” she said, “this is all Indiana fans.” She wasn’t exaggerating.

This was a pilgrimage and the Rose Bowl was ours.

Two years after sitting near the bottom of college football, IU continued the sport’s all-time turnaround by pounding Alabama 38-3 in the Rose Bowl.

With Don and my son John

Just 25 months earlier, this team was 3-9 and without a bowl victory in more than 30 years. It all changed in December 2023 when Indiana hired Curt Cignetti, a 62-year-old lifer who arrived from James Madison.

Fernando and the boys take the Heisman out for a Times Square spin, December 13, 2025

If you’d said it then, no one would have believed it: IU rises from the losingest program in college football history, goes 25–2 under “Cig,” runs the table in 2025, beats #1 Ohio State for the Big Ten title, earns the top Playoff seed—and caps it with a Heisman-winning quarterback and a Rose Bowl demolition of the Tide.

On New Year’s Day in Pasadena, the Hoosiers did not resemble Cinderella in any way. They dominated Bama in every phase.

Indiana rushed for 215 yards while holding the Crimson Tide to just 23. Bama quarterback Ty Simpson played through a fractured rib incurred on a second quarter hit/fumble before being pulled, and the Tide’s struggles drew pointed commentary as Kirk Herbstreit described Alabama as “just existing” defensively.

The boys viewing MIA-OSU Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Eve

IU’s offensive lineman Pat Coogan became the first center in Rose Bowl history to win offensive MVP, fitting recognition for an offensive line that coach Bob Bostad rates among the best he’s seen in 35 years.

Memorial Stadium in Bloomington seats 53,000. The IU contingent, roughly 70% of the Rose Bowl’s 90,000, was likely the largest gathering of Indiana fans ever.

I reunited with FIJI pledge brothers at the tailgate, many of whom I hadn’t seen in years, all of us delighting in the season we’d just witnessed.

IU’s Rose Bowl win began with its entrance to the stadium grounds. We were at a tented fraternity gathering near the team bus route.

When Alabama’s bus arrived, people noticed—and went back to their conversations. But 35 minutes later, as IU buses approached, everything changed.

People started walking—then running. Hundreds of them. A surge of fist-pumping Hoosiers sprinted to greet the team. What a sight, it had to be huge for those players to see that.

The Rose Bowl lives up to the billing. To see Indiana playing there with that kind of fan support was vindication for every disappointing season, every “wait till next year” endured over decades.

Pasadena welcomed the new year with steady rain, the first New Year’s Day downpour there in 20 years. Pregame conditions were wet, but showers stopped near kickoff. Sunshine broke through by the mid-third quarter, offering glimpses of the iconic San Gabriel sunset that defines the Rose Bowl.

And now, time to rip off the rearview mirror. On to Atlanta, and a rematch with the Oregon Ducks this weekend in the Peach Bowl national semifinal.

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