What to expect from the IU-Alabama Rose Bowl? Make mine the Hoosiers -- running away
The oddsmakers have installed IU as a 6 1/2-point favorite. I say they cover, and then some.
Indiana is going to beat Alabama in Thursday’s Rose Bowl and friends, it won’t be particularly close.
I’m going to tell you why.
Every time I’ve watched Alabama play, probably four or five times, I’ve seen a completely different team each and every time. Hell, in the comeback victory over Oklahoma in the first round of the CFP, I saw both Alabamas, Inept Alabama and Scary Alabama, in the same game. This is a team with multiple personalities, swinging wildly one from end of the pendulum to the other.
Every time I’ve watched IU play, and I’ve seen every game, I’ve seen the same team, cool, relentlessly efficient, professional, well-coached and pitiless. There have been times when opponents have played them close, but not once have I seen the Hoosiers play outside of their essential personality. They are college football’s Big Red Machine.
Thursday, I don’t know which Alabama team will show up, and I’m guessing their own head coach, former IU offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer, doesn’t have much of a clue, either. I know which Indiana team will show up in Pasadena. If everything goes according to form, IU will do all the things it’s been doing to its opponents every week. They’ll run the ball and stop the run. They’ll protect Fernando Mendoza. They’ll put heavy pressure on Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson. And they won’t make mistakes. They won’t beat themselves. Because they never do.
