Paul Finebaum says the pressure is on Indiana against Alabama
By David Wasson
Published:
The Rose Bowl matchup between the No. 1 seed Indiana Hoosiers and No. 9 seed Alabama Crimson Tide serves as 1 of the 4 College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchups – and delivers plenty of intriguing subplots.
The Hoosiers-Crimson Tide New Year’s Day game (4 p.m. ET, ESPN) will be yet another litmus test for an Indiana program that sprang from perpetual irrelevance into the national consciousness last season under coach Curt Cignetti. That Hoosiers emergence is among the many things ESPN pundit Paul Finebaum said has him attracted to the Grandaddy Of Them All.
“I was at a party last night and some people said, well, is Indiana really good?” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show. “And I’m like going, have you been on Mars the last couple of years? Or have you been listening to Paul Finebaum? Maybe that’s a better question.
“But they are really good. But the pressure is on Indiana here, even though we talk about where the SEC fits in. Alabama doesn’t get hung up on that. But that is such an intriguing game. You and I both know if you go down the rosters, Matt, it would be hard to find many, many players on the Indiana roster that were recruited or ever wanted by Alabama. But that really does not matter here.”
Finebaum added that Cignetti, who coached under former Alabama legend Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa, is a huge factor in this game – as is the pressure the Crimson Tide carries into New Year’s Day.
“They’ve got they have now an elite coach in Cignetti. Alabama is carrying a great, I mean, there’s a lot of pressure always on Alabama. But I think Indiana, if it wins this game, then suddenly you talk about… I don’t want to get too far ahead.”
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
