The Indiana football team arrived in California Monday night for Thursday’s Rose Bowl game in Pasadena against Alabama.
It’s the first time the Hoosiers have played in the Rose Bowl since the 1967 season. Then, it was the final game of the season. Now, the “Granddaddy of Them All” is one stop in the College Football Playoffs.
And the top-seeded Hoosiers are hoping it’s just the first stop.
“We've earned the right to be here,” center Pat Coogan said.
Indiana finished the year the No. 1-ranked team in the nation after going 12-and-0 in the regular season, then defeating then-No. 1 Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game.
The Hoosiers received a first-round bye in the playoffs and will face ninth-seed Alabama on New Year’s Day. The Crimson Tide beat Oklahoma in their playoff opener two weeks ago.
Indiana used that time to reload.
“Obviously, the first week or so, we didn't know who were playing, so that was just time to refresh, get our bodies back and do some self-scouting there and improve,” Coogan said. “And then when we found out it was ‘Bama, it was go time.”
Despite the enormity of the stage, the Hoosiers are preparing for the Rose Bowl as just the next game on the schedule.
“You’ve got to embrace the culture around the Rose Bowl and the significance of it, the history, but you can't really take it for too much,” linebacker Aiden Fisher said. “You’ve got to treat it as the next game, kind of prepare like it's any other game for us.”
Said Coogan: “Nothing's really changed. Now, doesn't matter that it's the Rose Bowl, necessarily. Like, we know the opponent, we know how big this game is. But at the end of the day, the game's played in between the white lines, so we’ve got to go out there and perform.”
The Hoosiers practiced today at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif.
Indiana is a seven-point favorite for the game, which kicks off at 4 p.m. Thursday on ESPN.
