After an opening round bye, No. 1-seed Indiana football is back in action this Thursday against the No. 9-seed Alabama Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl.
Curt Cignetti, Fernando Mendoza, and the rest of the team
will have an opportunity to extend the dream season and continue writing program history. Standing in their way will be an Alabama team that, like most Alabama football teams, should not be taken lightly. They have a coach that’s made a name for himself beating ranked opponents in Kalen DeBoer. They have a quarterback that narrowly missed out on being a Heisman finalist in Ty Simpson.
And it’s Alabama, after all.
For the second straight game, Indiana will be playing the biggest game in program history. Here are five stats to know about the 2025 Crimson Tide:
109.9 rushing yards per game
While Nick Saban got his rings on the back of a series of NFL running backs, DeBoer’s Alabama has not been nearly as dominant on the ground. This year, Alabama is averaging under 110 yards per contest on the ground, which would be good for 16th overall in the Big Ten, ahead of only Maryland and Minnesota.
Indiana saw five teams this season (Maryland, Illinois, Purdue, UCLA, and Michigan State) that averaged fewer than 150 yards on the ground. None of them scored more than 13 points.
Ty Simpson’s 3500 passing yards
Alabama’s offense has been kept afloat by its star quarterback, who currently has more yards through the air than Mendoza, albeit with fewer touchdowns. The Crimson Tide have four receivers with over 30 receptions, each totaling more than 400 receiving yards on the season so far. This is going to be a passing attack that tests Indiana’s secondary from the start of the game.
168.4 passing yards allowed per game
Kane Womack’s defense led the SEC in passing yards allowed per game in the way you want to, holding opponents to under 170 yards through the air. This is a hair better than Bryant Haines’ group, which has allowed 179.5 passing yards per contest. Mendoza has actually seen three defenses that held opponents to fewer passing yards in Oregon, Ohio State, and Iowa, but those were relatively quiet games for him and the Indiana offense as a whole.
Points per game: IU’s offense vs. Bama’s D
Indiana’s offense led the Big Ten with 41.9 points per game while Bama’s defense held opponents to 17.9 points per game, good for third in the SEC. Something will have to give here. Given Womack’s stout passing defense and equally impressive run defense (120.6 rushing yards per game), Indiana probably won”t approach its 41 point average. The Hoosiers have been able to win close, low-scoring games this year though, including a pair of top five wins over Oregon and Ohio State.
3 losses
This is an Alabama team that’s struggled with consistency, as the opening week loss to an unranked Florida State team attests to. Even last week against Oklahoma, the Crimson Tide found themselves down 17 before finally waking up late in the first half to bring the game to a tie. Bama fans will point to their good wins as proof of how well this team is capable of playing, but this 2025 Indiana team has not been forgiving to opponents who are prone to mistakes or slow starts to big games.
