There's not much else to say other than the Alabama showing at the Rose Bowl didn't even come close to living up to the Crimson Tide standard. Was that one of the worst losses in program history? Plenty of people think that's unfortunately the case.
ESPN analyst has a brutal assessment of Ty Simpson's NFL Draft stock
Everything went wrong in the 38-3 loss to the Hoosiers, with Bama seeing its season end in embarrassing fashion. Leave it to Paul Finebaum to make things even worse. While on ESPN's 'First Take' on Friday morning, he didn't hold back in RIPPING the state of the program:
.@finebaum says that the state of Alabama football is in "shambles" right now 😳 pic.twitter.com/1UWc7hgwjk
— First Take (@FirstTake) January 2, 2026
Alabama football's loss to Indiana was just made worse by Paul Finebaum
"It's in shambles," Finebaum said on the state of Alabama football. "I know that sounds like a remarkable statement considering that we were in the quarterfinals yesterday and Alabama was playing in the Rose Bowl, but because it was on that stage, the grandest stage in college football, against a team that nobody from Alabama respected. I'm not talking about Kalen DeBoer and his team, I'm talking about the Alabama fanbase."
Does Finebaum make a good point here? Alabama pulled off the thrilling win against Oklahoma on the road in Norman, but then the showing in Pasadena was nothing short of a disaster. From start to finish in this one, the Hoosiers were clearly the better team.
The Alabama offense couldn't get into any kind of a rhythm and things were only made worse when quarterback Ty Simpson went down with a serious injury. It has since been confirmed that Simpson suffered a fractured rib, which he tried playing through in head-turning fashion.
Despite all of that, a 35-point loss was posted and fans have been letting DeBoer have it from the moment the final whistle sounded off. Immediately, the Bama focus will be shifted to the transfer portal and looking to make key improvements on both sides of the ball for 2026.
The thought of trying to push DeBoer out the door is nothing short of silly. Alabama still had a strong season and not winning the CFP title takes nothing away from that. However, people are not happy with the close to the campaign and Finebaum appears to be disgusted with the performance that was recorded.