Your latest Crimson Tide news and notes.
Happy Gump Day, everyone. There is plenty of football on for you today, including tonight’s College Football Playoff matchup between Ohio State and Miami, in the Cotton Bowl. Michigan vs Texas would be more interesting if either team was anything resembling itself from a month ago, but it’s college football, and the offseason looms so lap it up. Your complete schedule in Central Time, via CFBGrid.
Use this as your game thread for all of the above.
Of course, Alabama plays tomorrow in the Rose, against top ranked Indiana. Some previews and predictions:
His final score prediction: Indiana 31, Alabama 18.
Adds Connelly:
“To me, this one’s all about the Hoosiers. They’re the unbeaten top seed, and they’ve already scored a couple of huge wins, but we’ve seen plenty of upstarts falter when they get near the mountaintop. Alabama is a well-coached and formidable foe, but IU’s A-game should be too much. It’s up to the Hoosiers to bring that A-game to Pasadena.”
Colin Gay: Can the Alabama defense capitalize if Indiana’s offense makes a mistake? Fernando Mendoza has six interceptions on 316 pass attempts in 2025. The Hoosiers offense has lost one fumble all season long. But the stat remains for Alabama football. The Crimson Tide has seven wins in eight games when they have won the turnover margin. Two of Alabama’s three losses came when it lost the turnover margin. Could be the margin of success against the Hoosiers.
Chase Goodbread: Can Alabama’s defensive front shut down the Indiana rushing attack and make the Hoosiers offense one-dimensional? QB Fernando Mendoza will be far easier to defend if so. The Crimson Tide was outstanding against the run vs. Oklahoma in the first round of the CFP, but IU’s ground game is a lot more challenging than the Sooners’ was.
Alabama vs Indiana score predictions
Colin Gay: No. 9 Alabama 24, No. 1 Indiana 21
Chase Goodbread: No. 9 Alabama 20, No. 1 Indiana 17
Alabama, defensively, has played pretty well. I don’t think it’s a great defense, but it’s played pretty well. If you go back to early October, it shut out Eastern Illinois and held LSU, which was a dumpster fire at the time, to nine points. Everybody else has scored 20 or more against Alabama since early October. Can Alabama hang on? Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza is a much better quarterback than Oklahoma’s John Mateer.
Mateer really struggled in that game against Alabama. He wasn’t on time and didn’t throw the football well. He gave a couple of freebies to Alabama. Mendoza is battle-tested, faced great defenses and has been behind on the road in the fourth quarter and won. I don’t think he’s going to flinch it all. This is an Indiana offense that didn’t do a lot against Ohio State, but when it needed it, it was great.
I like Indiana to win in a close one, probably in a classic.
Pick: Indiana 24, Alabama 21 (Alabama +6.5)
Winner: Indiana
Alabama showed itself to be the most resilient team on Dec. 19 when the Crimson Tide traveled to Oklahoma and overcame a 17-point deficit to win on the road. However, a slow start will be severely difficult to overcome against a Hoosiers team that prides itself on starting fast and running over its competition.
And Indiana doesn’t make a habit of giving the ball away like OU did in the first round of the CFP. Indiana ranks No. 1 in turnover margin (plus-17) and features the Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza at quarterback. It’s a team that has already shown it can beat what was the best team in the sport in Ohio State and will get one of its two best wide receivers back from injury in time for kickoff in Omar Cooper Jr.
Hummer (Alabama +6.5):Imagine explaining this line to someone three years ago, before Nick Saban retired. But as Curt Cignetti would tell you: “Google me.” Indiana is the justified favorite entering this matchup, and as is always the case with Alabama, it largely hinges on how Ty Simpson plays. The Tide can struggle to run the ball — ranking 72nd nationally in success rate — and Indiana owns a top-10 run defense. That means Simpson will have to carry the load. He’s capable of that, but Indiana is also an excellent pass defense and fields one of the nation’s most efficient offenses. It’s a brutal matchup for Alabama, which will need to play near-perfect football — something it hasn’t done consistently this season. It still feels strange to write, but give me the Hoosiers. They’ve been the most consistent team all year, and that matters. … Indiana 27, Alabama 24.
Crawford (Indiana -6.5): If there’s a chance of another playoff runaway in the quarterfinals, it could come here for the Crimson Tide. There’s no matchup an Alabama fan should view as favorable in this spot against the Heisman winner and a strong defensive group, but perhaps Kalen DeBoer can thrive again in the underdog role. His teams have consistently responded to adversity, and the distraction surrounding the Michigan rumors appears to be settling, which helps. Alabama spotted Oklahoma 17 points in its last outing, and a repeat of that would mean a long flight home to Tuscaloosa. As the unblemished top seed, there’s pressure on Indiana as well. Oregon fell in a similar spot last fall at the Rose Bowl after Ohio State won its first-round matchup with Tennessee. … Indiana 31, Alabama 17.
Austin Curtright: Alabama (+7)
Indiana comes away with a win, although the Crimson Tide will keep it close. Alabama looked much healthier and more like itself in its 34-24 win over Oklahoma in the first round of the CFP.
Jordan Mendoza: Alabama (+7)
Can Indiana avoid the first round flop? The Hoosiers are overwhelmingly better than the Crimson Tide, but don’t think Alabama will fold easily. Indiana gets a stiff test.
Jon Hoefling: Alabama (+7)
While I expect Indiana to win, given their advantages on offense and a defense that can stand toe-to-toe with Alabama’s, the Crimson Tide know what it takes to win in these situations. They’ll keep it close.
This is going to be a fun matchup between historic doormat Indiana, enjoying the best season in its history and currently atop the national rankings, against an Alabama team that has its usual bevy of blue chips but struggled with consistency in 2025. Conventional wisdom says that Ty Simpson will need to move the ball through the air as he did last week at Oklahoma, and his weapons are healthier than they’ve been in weeks. One potential exploitable advantage might be the size of Alabama’s pass catchers against a relatively small Indiana secondary. In particular, Josh Cuevas and Isaiah Horton should see some mismatches in the game.
Alabama also gets back senior LT Overton on the defensive side, a disruptive force who is stout against the run and leads the Alabama linemen in sacks. This Alabama squad showed what they can do at their best by knocking off Georgia in Athens and scoring 27 straight in two quarters against Oklahoma after spotting them 17.
But make no mistake, Indiana has played better than Alabama this season, strength of schedule be damned.
The weather has a chance to be messy, but I don’t see it as a major advantage for either side, and both defenses are stout. One would expect the game to be low scoring, but things rarely turn out just as we expect.
It will hardly be a surprise if Indiana wins, but Alabama seemed to discover something in Norman. Scoring 34 points, 27 offensive, against that defense inspires some confidence that Simpson recaptured his moxie. Let’s call it Alabama, 24-20.
Of course, that is merely my opinion. Give us yours in the comments.
We learned yesterday that Ryan Williams has no intention of hitting the transfer portal, and Kalen DeBoer is very happy about that.
When it comes to Ryan, he had such a big year as a freshman. I know you can always have more. But there’s just been a nonstop level of just work that he puts in.
And, I mean, just his attitude. People can always say stuff, but they don’t know. When you’re there with him and you see the smile, the work, the team-first attitude that he has, you can’t help but root for him, whether it’s as a coach or whether it’s as a teammate.
I just love the guy. The guy is super talented, and it hasn’t been the perfect year. But everyone in this room, all the players, I know that they have nothing but love and giving them the support that they have because every day when he steps on the football field, he’s trying to overcome and help us be better. And I know that’s what he’s done the last week and a half.
And he’s going to have a game like he’s had at different times where he goes off, and I’m just waiting for that moment because when it is, it’s going to be awesome. And we’re all going to be super happy for him. And I know that it’s coming sooner than later.
Keelon Russell also reaffirmed his commitment to the program.
Bill Connelly wonders how much Stephen Daley’s absence will affect the Indiana defense.
For some reason, Stephen Daley was merely honorable mention All-Big Ten, but the Kent State defensive end transfer might have been the most important player on the IU defense. His 19 TFLs trailed only Texas Tech’s David Bailey among CFP defenders, and he led the team in run stops. I’m using the past tense because Daley was lost for the season against Ohio State. When you almost never have to take risks to generate pressure, that’s a huge plus. We’ll see if IU’s risk profile changes without Daley and, in case it does, if Bama can punish the Hoosiers with counterpunches.
Indianapolis Star writer Zach Osterman sees some symbolism in this matchup.
At a time when so much else about college athletics is atrophying against the unquenchable thirst for money and the legal tide sweeping away all its outdated, amateur conventions, football offers a spark of hope.
Now, in what was for so long the most calcified of American sporting institutions, you can be anything.
Very well then. Alabama, with all its trophies and all its wins and all its history, in Pasadena, against these stakes and to claim this prize that forever represented Indiana’s impossible dream. One last dragon to slay.
After this season, the Rose Bowl’s Big Ten tie-in expires. Perhaps that’s fitting. We’ve torn down so much of what was once recognizable in college football. Let this be the last stand of the old ways.
Which is why it had to be like this: The program for so long synonymous with ineptitude and failure, against college football’s embodiment of excellence, for the retiring granddaddy of them all.
Last, Nate Oats believes that his superstar point guard will be available on Saturday against Kentucky.
“Labaron is going through treatment,” Oats said. “He’s got a left leg injury from a contusion he got in the Kennesaw State game. It’s definitely not super serious, but he couldn’t play in a game now. We’re off tomorrow, hopefully he gets a lot of rehab.
“I think it’s pretty likely he plays Saturday, but I don’t want to say for sure.”
Philon is averaging 21.9 points, 5.6 assists, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 55.1% from the field and 42.2% from deep.
That’s about it for now. Have a great day, and be safe tonight.
Roll Tide.
Category: General Sports
