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Paul Finebaum Offers Painful Indictment of Alabama After Rose Bowl Blowout

ESPN pundit said Crimson Tide looked like a "soft" program.

Kyle Koster

Kalen DeBeor's team was overmatched in a Rose Bowl test against Indiana.
Kalen DeBeor's team was overmatched in a Rose Bowl test against Indiana. / Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Alabama did not look like they belonged to be on the same field as Indiana on New Year's Day as the Hoosiers dominated for 60 minutes and walked away with a 38-3 victory and a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinals. Even though Curt Cignetti's team has looked like a wagon for two straight years, it was nonetheless jarring to see the Crimson Tide appear completely hapless and overmatched. Perhaps the most impressive thing is the way Indiana had its way in the trenches and bullied a program known for being able to inflict their will.

"If you just walked in from lunch yesterday and watched this game you thought the team that was beating down Alabama was Alabama under Nick Saban," Finebaum said.

"They played just like a Nick Saban team," he added. "They beat you to death and made you give up and that's what happened. That's why everybody in Alabama this morning is besides themselves because their team looked soft. Their coach looked soft and their program looked soft. That is unprecedented territory for Alabama."

In defense of Kalen DeBoer and the Tide, Indiana has been making good programs and elite programs alike look soft over the past few seasons. They were the one team that did not allow a long layoff to slow their momentum and took care of business in a professional matter. So yeah, come to think of it they did look a lot like a Saban Alabama squad.

DeBeor, who was the subject of rumors about the Michigan opening before the playoff began, is now two years into the seemingly impossible job of replacing Saban in Tuscaloosa. Making it to the CFP quarterfinals is certainly not nothing but anything less than a national championship earns a failing grade from the fanbase, no matter the coach and no matter the year.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.