Top-Seeded Hoosiers Make It Clear – Job Isn’t Finished
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
LOS ANGELES - Buses pulled in; Indiana players, coaches and support staff trudged out; and a bouquet of red roses were offered to and accepted by head coach Curt Cignetti. After a morning practice and meetings in Bloomington, and then a long flight, the top-seeded Hoosiers (13-0) had arrived at their downtown LA hotel ready to finish preparations for their Jan. 1 Rose Bowl showdown with ninth-seeded Alabama (11-3).
The mission, linebacker Aiden Fisher said from the InterContinental Hotel Lobby, is simple.
“The job’s not finished,” he said. “Getting here is one thing, but winning is another. That’s the goal. Nothing else matters if we don’t win this game.”
The three-and-a-half-week break since IU’s Big Ten title game win over Ohio State is nearly over. Ramping up to game speed is well underway.
Cignetti saw to that.
“It all starts with Coach Cignetti and the schedule he put together since our last game,” offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan said. “The guys know what’s in front of them and the opportunity there. It shouldn’t be that hard for them to focus when we’re at practice or in meetings. We’re getting ready to play a great team in a great situation.
“Our guys will be ready to play. Shoot, we're playing in the Rose Bowl. It’s a College Football Playoff game against a great opponent. The experience in our group will help us.”
IU will mix media obligations with practice and meetings over the next few days in search of its first bowl victory since beating Baylor in the 1991 Copper Bowl. This will be its first meeting with Alabama, which advanced with a 34-24 first-round playoff win over Oklahoma.
“After the Alabama game,” tight end Riley Nowakowski said, “we really got into game prep. You have to really lock in and get back into normal game speed stuff and normal game week type of practices. It’s more about the mentality and being fully in game mode.
“We've got a lot of older guys who understand what it takes. We need every second we can get.”
That means being fully engaged at every opportunity, Shanahan added.
“Guys do a good job of understanding what we do in practice will carry over to the games. The proof is in the pudding. Throughout the year, that’s the edge that we’ve had. We put good days together, stacked good meetings and good practices together, and the next thing you know, we’re where we are in the season. Take it one day at a time.”
Shanahan added that the Hoosiers might have a “slight adjustment early in the game, but I trust our guys in their preparation to be ready to go.”
IU has thrived offensively with precise execution. It has the Big Ten’s best offense in terms of points (41.9), total yards (472.8) and rushing yards (221.2), and Shanahan sees no reason for that to change against an Alabama defense, directed by former IU defensive coordinator Kane Wommack, that holds opponents to 17.9 points and that shut down Oklahoma over the final three quarters.
“No. 1, our scout team gives us a really good look and those guys are capable at all three levels,” Shanahan said. “You've got a lot of good young players over there that are doing a great job of pushing us. They are pushing us to be on point with our details. We're getting a lot of different looks and they're doing a good job executing it.”
That execution has led to just IU’s second Rose Bowl opportunity and first since 1968.
“This is an opportunity you dream of as youth football players and just as a kid in general, watching college football,” center Pat Coogan said. “It's special for my family and all of my loved ones. They get to fly out here and watch us and be a part of the whole atmosphere.
“You take it in and appreciate the moment for a brief second and then it's game time. We’ve been playing this game since third, fourth, fifth grade. It doesn't really change. Sure, the moment may be a little bit bigger, the scene maybe a little bigger, but it's football at the end of the day.”