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Indiana radio voice takes shot at Paul Finebaum during Hoosiers win over Alabama in Rose Bowl

IMG_6598by: Nick Kosko01/03/26nickkosko59

Long time Indiana football radio voice Don Fischer took a shot at ESPN’s Paul Finebaum during the Hoosiers’ blowout win over Alabama in the Rose Bowl. Indiana beat the Crimson Tide 38-3 to advance to the College Football Playoff semifinals.

Despite Indiana’s success under Curt Cignetti these last two years, Finebaum ripped IU’s decision to give Cignetti an eight-year contract extension back in October. That was after he predicted Cignetti would leave Indiana for a bigger program amid all of the vacancies this year.

So with the Hoosiers dominating in Pasadena, Fischer decided to jab back. Think of it as a broadcaster who’s been calling games for five-decades finally getting his shot.

“31-3 over the Crimson Tide,” Fischer said on the broadcast. “What are you thinking now, Paul Finebaum?”

Finebaum eventually conceded on Friday that Indiana’s win over Alabama was a changing of the guard in college football. The Hoosiers are 14-0 going into the semifinal against Oregon, a rematch of their win earlier this year.

“The 2019 national championship game, first of all, you’re up against Trevor Lawrence,” Finebaum said on his show. “Yeah, Alabama has Tua Tagovailoa, but we should’ve known that would not be his most embarrassing loss. He’s had about 40 since then. But ultimately, this just felt like a changing of the guard. You knew, walking out of that stadium in Santa Clara, Alabama would win again. Saban was still going to be great. It was just an incredibly bad night. Those happened very rarely.

“But this just felt like the beginning – this wasn’t the beginning. This was a continuum. We’ve seen this movie before. Every time DeBoer would have one of these, he would make up for it. This game was different, but the Georgia game in Atlanta was an absolute bludgeoning, except he was able to turn that Oklahoma game around – by the way, against an Oklahoma team that probably had no business being in the playoff, either.”

Indiana continues to put together a historic turnaround under Cignetti, who arrived in Bloomington last season. IU is now 25-2 under his watch, with both losses coming in 2024. Thursday’s game was especially full circle for Cignetti, who was a member of Nick Saban’s staff from 2007-11 as wide receivers coach.