The Alabama Crimson Tide survived a scare against the Oklahoma Sooners, winning their first-round matchup 34-24 in Norman and punching a ticket to the Rose Bowl to take on the Indiana Hoosiers in Pasadena, California.
As the No. 9 seed, they're hoping they can harness some of the championship magic the 2024/2025 Ohio State Buckeyes were able to conjure up from the No. 8 seed.
As USA Today's Craig Meyer noted, though, that's a long shot because this year's Alabama has nothing on last year's title team.
"We all saw what happened last season when a Big Ten team with an extra week-and-a-half of rest found itself in the Rose Bowl against a talented opponent with an embattled coach coming off a much-needed first-round win. This Alabama squad isn’t last year’s Ohio State team, though. Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb’s offensive ingenuity will help the Crimson Tide keep it close, but their lack of a viable and consistent run game will crush it against one of the country’s best defenses," Meyer wrote.
Alabama cannot run the ball anything like last year's Ohio State Buckeyes
The biggest difference between this year's Crimson Tide and last year's Buckeyes is the disparity in the run game. OSU had Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson, two 2025 NFL draft second-rounders, who both had more than 1,000 yards rushing. Alabama has Jam Miller, who had 504 yards, and no one else with at least 300 yards.
The Crimson Tide probably has a better quarterback, Ty Simpson, than the Buckeyes had with Will Howard. Ohio State had a much better receiving corps than Alabama has right now, though, especially with Ryan Williams' disappearing act. Defensively, the comparison is borderline insulting.
Of course, Indiana is also a much superior team to last year's Oregon Ducks with Dillon Gabriel under center. Fernando Mendoza's dominance looks sustainable when the game slows down and every detail matters.
Either way, it'd be the biggest surprise in the remaining field to see the Crimson Tide win four straight to become College Football's national champions for the 2025 season.
Kalen DeBoer, like Ryan Day, has made the big game before. As long as he's an ill-fitting non-autonomous coach in Tuscaloosa, unlike Day, DeBoer won't win it.