by Matt St. Charles
Two years ago, the teams meeting in this year’s Rose Bowl were in very different positions.
Indiana was coming off a 3-9 season that got Tom Allen fired. Alabama, on the other hand, snuck into the College Football Playoff in search of Nick Saban’s eighth national championship, but lost in Pasadena to undefeated Michigan, and Saban retired shortly after.
So, each program made a coaching hire–IU tabbed James Madison’s Curt Cignetti for the job, and Alabama chose Washington’s Kalen DeBoer.
While DeBoer has been relatively successful, getting the Crimson Tide back into the Playoff this season after missing it last year, Cignetti has vaulted the Hoosiers to unexpected heights, with two playoff appearances and earning the top seed this year.
When asked about Indiana going up against the aura of college football’s third-winningest program of all time, Cignetti paid it no mind.
“You [the media] probably know more about the mystique than [our players] do,” he said. “Our guys just know what they see on tape.”
In a way, his response reflects everything that’s made Indiana successful since his hiring on November 30, 2023. It’s become a program rooted in substance, obsessed with the process, and never daunted by the opponent on the other side of the field–whether it’s Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, or any other blueblood.
Glitz and glam mean absolutely nothing to Cignetti or the program, and that extends to most of the factors during Rose Bowl week.
There’s been lots of talk about Alabama coming from the SEC, and who it’s had to play in order to get here, compared to Indiana. The Crimson Tide’s strength of schedule ranks sixth, while IU sits at 28.
“We don’t talk about that too much at all,” Elijah Sarratt said. “We’ve just got to go out there and play who we play. People are going to talk good or bad about us regardless, so it’s always about focusing on us and doing what we can do to win games.”
Just being in the Rose Bowl comes with exuberant pomp and circumstance. There’s plenty of media availability and tradition that pay homage to the historic game.
While the Hoosiers appreciate the pageantry that comes with their success, they understand this trip to Pasadena for what it really is: a chance to get closer to the ultimate goal.
“You have the opportunity to win another football game,” Aiden Fisher said. “Just being at the Rose Bowl is a special experience. This game is the granddaddy of them all. For us, it’s just one more game that we’re fighting for our lives to play more football…The preparation has to be at an all-time high. Everything we do, the details, the communication, everything, we have to up another level.”
“We understand we’re going to have a bunch of extracurriculars and stuff, but we know the main goal,” Sarratt added, echoing the same sentiment. “We’re not treating it like a bowl game. We’re treating it like it’s a playoff game–which it is. We want to just continue to stack days…That’s all it is.”
That approach–that unrelenting focus–comes from the top down. That was ever apparent in Cignetti’s media day quotes, where he was certainly daydreaming about how his team would attack the rest of the days leading up to January 1.
“The only goal right now is to have as good a day as we can today,” he said. “We’ve got progress to make in our preparation. When we get done today with media, it’s important we have a great day and that we have a realistic perspective of what it takes to meet the challenge…What [the media is] talking about are things in the past, which I’ve probably fielded that question a hundred times, right? But it’s a good question. It’s great. But we’re here to play in the playoff game, and our 100% focus is on the here and now.”
After the Big Ten championship, Cignetti said he had some time to humble his team, to keep them where their feet are. Even the 13 wins that have built up this incredible season don’t matter yet–not when there’s still a chance to etch this team further into history.
“Everything we’ve done up to this point doesn’t matter,” Cignetti said. “All that did was get us here. The only thing that matters now, once we leave [media], is our preparation between now and kickoff.”