5 months ago
- College Sports
- Published: Jan. 02, 2026, 6:35 p.m.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The aura of invincibility that has surrounded Alabama shot for generations evaporated successful stunning manner astatine nan Rose Bowl, arsenic Indiana delivered a 38-3 thrashing that sent 1 of assemblage football’s astir storied programme into a full-blown personality crisis.
What happened successful Pasadena wasn’t simply astir 1 bad game. It was astir nan shattering of a mystique that has defined Alabama shot for decades.
Paul Finebaum, nan sound of SEC football, delivered a sobering appraisal of nan harm done:
“Yesterday shattered that mystique,” nan sound of SEC football, Paul Finebaum, said. “It’s gone. Everything that Bear Bryant put up location and others, particularly Nick Saban, six nationalist championships went down nan drain. Not only because it was successful nan Rose Bowl, it was against Indiana, a squad that I can’t I couldn’t find an Alabama instrumentality that really respected Indiana.”
The 35-point conclusion represented nan worst postseason nonaccomplishment successful Alabama history, a staggering statistic for a programme that has knowledgeable much title glory than possibly immoderate different successful assemblage football.
But beyond nan scoreboard, what seemed to disturb observers astir was nan mode of nan defeat. Alabama didn’t conscionable lose, they looked wholly outmatched by a programme they historically would person dominated.
“And that’s why everybody successful Alabama this greeting is too themselves because their squad looks soft,” Finebaum continued. “Uh their coach looks soft and their programme looks soft. And and that is unprecedented territory for Alabama.”
The word “soft” is possibly nan astir damning disapproval that tin beryllium leveled against an Alabama team.
For decades, nan Crimson Tide has built its personality astir toughness, physicality and an unrelenting will to dominate. To spot that personality wholly inverted connected nan sport’s biggest shape has sent shockwaves done nan fanbase and nan assemblage shot world astatine large.
What makes this conclusion peculiarly difficult for Alabama supporters to tummy is nan immense talent disparity betwixt nan 2 programs.
“The talent composite of this roster should not person a capacity for illustration we saw yesterday, particularly pinch them quitting astatine nan end,” assemblage shot expert Jordan Rogers said. “That’s nan astir glaring thing... We haven’t seen a Bama squad get retired coached this consistently astatine times complete nan past mates years. That’s a large problem.”
The numbers show nan story: Indiana has 8 players connected their roster who were rated arsenic 4 aliases five-star recruits. Alabama has 57.
That benignant of talent advantage should make a blowout nonaccomplishment virtually impossible. Yet, it happened anyway, raising uncomfortable questions astir coaching, mentation and nan program’s guidance nether Kalen DeBoer.
For DeBoer, nan timing couldn’t beryllium worse.
After replacing nan legendary Nick Saban and appearing to correct nan vessel pinch a triumph complete Oklahoma, this devastating nonaccomplishment has erased immoderate goodwill he had built pinch nan Alabama faithful.
“No, he’s not going to get fired, nor should he astir apt beryllium fired, but I don’t cognize a batch of Alabama fans who deliberation he’ll ever triumph a championship,” Finebaum said. “And that’s really Alabama fans measurement their coach and their program.”
Championships aren’t a dream successful Tuscaloosa. They’re an expectation. And aft nan Rose Bowl disaster, that anticipation abruptly feels further distant than it has successful decades.
Fall of 2023 marks nan extremity of Jonathan's 2nd afloat twelvemonth pinch cleveland.com. A 2022 postgraduate of Morehouse College, he's been a valuable summation to cleveland.com's precocious schoolhouse sports sum and has helped...
