After Rose Bowl blowout win over Alabama, Indiana finally has nothing left to prove

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PASADENA, Calif. — For a lot of the college football world, Indiana entered Thursday afternoon still needing to do more.

Now, there is no doubt that it firmly belongs. The Hoosiers, with their first playoff win in the books, are a football school. And a legitimate national title contender at that.

“A lot of people still think that we’re the same old Indiana, and they don’t give us the respect that we deserve,” wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. said. “I feel like this proves a lot … It was a dream come true.”

Indiana obliterated Alabama on Thursday afternoon at the Rose Bowl, and left no doubt that it was the better program. The Hoosiers cruised to a 38-3 win behind a masterclass showing from Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, who again managed a balanced offense that looked like it had no issue whatsoever getting past the team that has dominated the sport for well over a decade.

He threw three touchdowns to three different wide receivers and had just two incompletions in the win. Kaelon Black and Roman Hemby combined for 188 yards on the ground with a touchdown each. Indiana never trailed in the blowout, and completely shut down Alabama's offense. The Crimson Tide managed just 23 rushing yards and scored only a field goal after backup quarterback Austin Mack came in to replace an injured, and struggling, Ty Simpson in the second half. 

That balance, even though it was offensive lineman Pat Coogan who was named the game’s MVP, all comes back to Mendoza.

“He instills confidence in everybody around him. For me, I don’t have to do much to get the unit going,” offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan said. “I turn it over to him. He gets the guys going. He knows what to say and what buttons to push. I’m really happy for him, he’s been outstanding all yearlong.”

And, perhaps even more notably, Indiana did all of that having not played a game in more than three weeks. Up until kickoff Thursday, teams with a bye in the College Football Playoff were a combined 0-6.

“It’s definitely a huge struggle [with such a long break],” Mendoza said. “I think Coach [Curt] Cignetti did a fantastic job of a trickle-down effect of really making sure there was no complacency. Because you know you have, I think it was 26 days off, that’s very, very tough.

“And especially in the first drive as an offense, myself included, I think we got off to a slow start … I think it was great, overcoming that challenge as a team having such a long time off.”

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So, how far can Indiana take this?

Curt Cignetti seems to brush off the thought of analyzing his and the program’s rise in Bloomington every chance he gets.

He doesn’t want to address the fact that he’s now taken a team that has long been considered a doormat in the Big Ten and hasn’t won a bowl game since the early 1990s to consecutive playoff appearances. Cignetti has gone 25-2 in his two seasons at Indiana and won a program record 14 wins this season. Before he landed there from James Madison, the school had never hit double digit wins.

Cignetti is, however, always defiant.

“Why should [the moment] be too big, because our name’s Indiana?” Cignetti said on the field after the win.

For many (if not most), the answer to that question was always yes. It can’t be anymore.

Beating Alabama the way that Indiana did — it was the worst postseason loss in Alabama history — has brought a level of legitimacy to the Hoosiers program that it has never seen. Time and again this season the Hoosiers have lived up to that moment, whether it was closing out a tough Iowa team on the road, pulling off late-game heroics against Penn State also on the road or beating then-top-ranked Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game. Now, they are a single win away from reaching the national championship game.

In order to get there, Indiana will have to get past Oregon next week in the Peach Bowl. The Ducks also rolled to a shutout win over Texas Tech in their quarterfinal game earlier Thursday. While Oregon appears to be a much better opponent than Alabama is this postseason, the Hoosiers have already beaten the Ducks once. They snuck out a 10-point win on the road in October. That got them to 6-0. Oregon hasn’t lost since then, and is now coming off back-to-back double-digit playoff wins.

That’s a problem for when the Hoosiers land back in southern Indiana. And whenever Cignetti finally takes a breath and reflects on his rise with the Hoosiers, he knows it’ll be worth his time.

“It would be a hell of a movie,” he said.

It would be a great ending to that movie if the Hoosiers are the ones lifting the national championship trophy in a few weeks, perfect season in hand. But it won’t really matter. Cignetti has already brought Indiana football to life. 

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