Indiana vs. Alabama: College Football Playoff players to watch, key to the Rose Bowl
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Welcome to college football in 2025. It’s a world where none of us bat an eye that No. 1 Indiana is favored by a touchdown over No. 9 Alabama in the Rose Bowl.
And in a game that features the Heisman winner, not one person is surprised that the Heisman winner plays for the Hoosiers and not the Crimson Tide.
[More CFP: OSU vs. Miami | Oregon vs. Texas Tech | Georgia vs. Ole Miss]
Rose Bowl: No. 1 Indiana vs. No. 9 Alabama
How these teams got here
Indiana (13-0): It can’t be said often enough how Indiana made such a leap in Curt Cignetti’s first year and then got even better in his second year at the school. After a playoff appearance and losses only to Ohio State and Notre Dame in 2024, Indiana simply beat everyone on its schedule in 2025.
The Hoosiers beat then-No. 9 Illinois 63-10 in September before a 30-20 win over Oregon on Oct. 11. A late comeback and incredible throw and catch from Fernando Mendoza to Omar Cooper Jr. was needed to take down Penn State, but that’s nothing to hold against the Hoosiers. After clinching a spot in the Big Ten title game with a win over Purdue, Indiana then held Ohio State to a season-low 10 points in a 13-10 win for the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff.
Alabama (11-3): The Crimson Tide were dominated by Georgia in the SEC title game and carried over that performance into the first 20 minutes of their first-round game at Oklahoma. The Sooners led 17-0 as Alabama looked listless and unworthy of a playoff spot after Notre Dame got dropped from the field in favor of Miami.
Things changed quickly. Thanks to a blocked punt and a pick-6, Alabama had the game tied at halftime and scored 27 straight points in a 34-24 win over the Sooners. That got Alabama its second appearance in the Rose Bowl in three seasons. Alabama lost to Michigan in Pasadena at the end of the 2023 season.
How the QBs stack up
On one side is the player who was the midseason Heisman favorite. On the other is the player who lifted the trophy earlier in December.
Mendoza convincingly won the award over Diego Pavia and Jeremiyah Love thanks to 33 TD passes over 13 games. Mendoza will break the 3,000-yard mark with 20 passing yards against the Crimson Tide and he’s completing over 71% of his passes with just six interceptions.
The Cal transfer has four games this season where he’s thrown as many or more touchdown passes than incompletions. He had four TDs and four incompletions against Michigan State; four TDs and two incompletions against Wisconsin; five TDs and two incompletions against Illinois; and five TDs and one incompletion against Indiana State.
Alabama’s Ty Simpson struggled against Georgia like the entire team did. Simpson was just 19-of-39 for 212 yards and a TD and an interception. It was the first time all season that he completed fewer than 50% of his passes in a single game.
Against Oklahoma, Simpson was 18-of-29 passing for 232 yards and threw two touchdowns. Simpson has thrown for 3,500 yards over 14 games and has 28 TDs with just five interceptions.
Players to watch
Indiana WR Charlie Becker: The sophomore has just 26 catches and two touchdowns this season. But Becker’s grabs have gone for 515 yards as he’s averaging nearly 20 yards a catch. And he’s been exceptional over the last month of the season.
Becker has made 20 of his 26 catches over Indiana’s last five games. He had seven catches for 118 yards against Penn State while also playing a key part of that game-winning drive. He followed that up with five grabs for 108 yards and a TD against Wisconsin.
In the Big Ten title game, Becker led all Indiana receivers with six catches for 126 yards. His deep catch from Mendoza on third down late in the game allowed Indiana to run nearly all the time off the clock in the fourth quarter and leave Ohio State without a realistic chance of a comeback.
Alabama WR Ryan Williams: As Becker has emerged for Indiana, Williams has nearly disappeared for Alabama.
Williams has 43 catches for 636 yards and four touchdowns in 2025. Those numbers are down from his stellar freshman season. And they’re largely a product of the first eight games of the season too.
Over Alabama’s last five games, Williams has just seven catches for 108 yards. He was shut out against Auburn and had one catch for five yards against Oklahoma. His biggest moment in that win over Oklahoma? A drop. Williams has a lot of them this year. And the Tide need him to rediscover his form if they want to make a surprise national championship run.
By now, everyone knows that Alabama can’t run the ball. After minus-3 rushing yards against Georgia, Alabama had 28 yards on 25 carries against Oklahoma. Alabama has rushed for more than 150 yards against just two FBS teams all season and is averaging just 3.4 yards a carry.
Indiana, meanwhile, is incredibly good against the pass. Just how much can Indiana dare Alabama to attempt to run the ball?
Opposing QBs have thrown for 2,334 yards against the Hoosiers and tallied just seven touchdowns. Remarkably, those seven touchdowns have come over seven different games. Not one quarterback has thrown for multiple TDs against Indiana in 2025.
Simpson is going to have to break that streak for Alabama to pull the upset. Ohio State’s Julian Sayin averaged 8.8 yards an attempt against the Hoosiers in the Big Ten title game. That was the best mark of any QB Indiana has faced all seasons. The pass rush will be without Stephen Daley after his post-Big Ten title game injury too. If Simpson can have a big game, Alabama should at least hang around.
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