Alabama is heading to the Rose Bowl with a chip on its shoulder and redemption on its mind. The Crimson Tide has earned a date with the No. 1 seed Indiana Hoosiers on New Year’s Day in Pasadena. Kalen DeBoer has heard all the hot seat buzz as recently as Bama’s loss to Georgia in the SEC championship game. But the Rose Bowl is a chance for DeBoer to quiet all the narratives that started in his first season. And he has got an Alabama legend on his side.

National championship-winning Alabama legend Gene Stallings had a bold take, when asked about DeBoer’s performance in his second season at the helm in Tuscaloosa. “I think he’s done an outstanding job. If he’s not the coach of the year, they shouldn’t have one,” Stallings told AL.com. “He’s done a super job, in my opinion, and I watch Alabama a lot on television.”

That’s high praise from a coach who knows what it takes to win at Alabama, having led the Crimson Tide to the 1992 national championship. Stallings also reflected on the significance of the Rose Bowl itself. He called it “the granddaddy of all of them” and emphasized that winning in Pasadena carries a weight that few other postseason stages can match. His endorsement of Kalen DeBoer speaks volumes about how far the second-year coach has brought this program despite the impossible task of following Nick Saban.​

DeBoer has shown remarkable improvement from his first season to his second year in Tuscaloosa. In 2024, Alabama finished outside the College Football Playoff picture entirely. But DeBoer regrouped and led the Tide to a 7-1 conference record and an 11-3 overall mark in 2025. He secured one of the 12 CFP spots this season. 

Stallings also had a powerful message for the Alabama team heading into the Rose Bowl. “I would tell them to start the game off in their own mind, they were zero to zero and the best team’s going to win the game,” he said. “The game’s going to be won on certain amount of plays. They got to make those plays.” 

That mentality is crucial because Indiana is far from a pushover. This is a well-coached, disciplined team that doesn’t beat itself. Cignetti has built Indiana into a juggernaut in just his second season, guiding the Hoosiers to their first 8-0 start since 1967, then to 9-0, 10-0, and eventually 12-0 in the regular season. And Indiana’s 2025 season has been a different story altogether. They’ve been dominant and consistent, being the only team to beat the reigning national champions Ohio State Buckeyes.

Alabama can’t afford the kind of mistakes it made in its first-round win against Oklahoma. They gave a healthy 17-0 lead to the Sooners. And if it weren’t for Venables’ squad beating themselves and Ty Simpson being an out-of-the-world quarterback like he is, Alabama would not be gracing the sidelines of the Rose Bowl. So, no more mistakes, especially against Curt Cignetti and Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza. DeBoer knows his team has to execute at the highest level from the opening kickoff, just like Stallings said. Start 0-0, make the plays that matter, and let the best team win.​

A homecoming for DeBoer and Wommack

This Rose Bowl matchup carries extra emotional weight for Alabama’s coaching staff, particularly for head coach Kalen DeBoer and defensive coordinator Kane Wommack. Both of them have deep ties to the Indiana program. 

DeBoer served as Indiana’s offensive coordinator and associate head coach in 2019. He led an offense that averaged 433.2 yards per game and ranked third in the Big Ten. Wommack was the Hoosiers’ defensive coordinator from 2019-2020 after serving as linebackers coach in 2018. And the two spent that 2019 season working together on Tom Allen’s staff in Bloomington. 

When asked about his time with the Hoosiers, Wommack had a genuine and heartfelt response. “Some really great memories in that position.” After just one year as Indiana’s OC, DeBoer moved on to become the head coach at Fresno State in 2020, then took the Washington job, and eventually landed at Alabama. Wommack spent one more season with Indiana before taking his first head coaching role at South Alabama in 2020, becoming the youngest FBS head coach at age 33, before joining DeBoer’s staff with the Crimson Tide in 2024.​

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On New Year’s Day at 3 p.m. CT, DeBoer and Wommack will stand on the opposite sideline from the program that helped shape their careers. They will battle for a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinals in what promises to be one of the most emotionally charged games of the postseason.​