Curt Cignetti

Alabama’s national championships in 2010 and 2015 are turning into the proving grounds for the coaches who will play for this month’s national championship. Indiana pasted Oregon last night in the Peach Bowl 56 to 22. That sets up a showdown in Miami between the Hoosiers and the Hurricanes between former assistants of retired Alabama coach Nick Saban.

Number one ranked Indiana became the first team in the brief history of the 12-team College Football Playoff to win a game after receiving a first-round bye, smothering Alabama 38-3 in a quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl on Thursday. Fans of the Crimson Tide may be seeking solace with social media posts on how all of the coaches playing for the semi-finals, and the college football title, all worked as assistants for retired Alabama coach Nick Saban. That list doesn’t include the Tide’s Kalen DeBoer.

Sportswriters have no end of Rose Bowl story lines as the Crimson Tide prepares to face Indiana (for the first time ever—one more angle.) Observers didn’t know that when Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe was stopped on a fourth down in overtime by Michigan in 2023 that Nick Saban had coached his final game for Alabama.

Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti believes his four seasons working with Nick Saban helped him learn how to prioritize organization, avoid complacency and maintain high standards. In fact, Cignetti thinks it's a primary reason he's preparing for his first Rose Bowl as a head coach. Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer feels similarly about the one season he spent at Indiana.