Paul Finebaum declares Alabama's Rose Bowl loss to Indiana a 'changing of the guard'

With Thursday’s loss to Indiana in the Rose Bowl, Alabama finished with a 10-4 record in Kalen DeBoer’s second season. But to SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum, it felt like a “changing of the guard.”

Indiana dominated from the start in the Rose Bowl as former Crimson Tide assistant Curt Cignetti’s group flew to the 38-3 victory in Pasadena. Alabama also had to go through the vast majority of the second half after quarterback Ty Simpson went down with an injury. Simpson left after the first possession out of halftime.

In the effort, the Crimson Tide totaled just 193 yards of offense while Indiana put up 407 as a group, including 215 rush yards. When asked Friday by caller Bash about whether it was the most embarrassing Alabama loss in the 21st century, Finebaum agreed and compared it to the 2019 national title game against Clemson. Of course, the Tide bounced back well from that one.

“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. Friday’s game was especially full circle for Cignetti, who was a member of Nick Saban’s staff from 2007-11 as wide receivers coach.

When asked by ESPN’s Rece Davis about his two seasons at Indiana, Cignetti admitted it would make “one hell of a movie” someday. The Hoosiers have a chance to continue writing their story in the Fiesta Bowl, where they will take on Ole Miss after its thrilling victory over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.