Paul Finebaum incorrectly chose Alabama to win over Indiana in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal Thursday, and the Hoosiers made him pay for it.
Longtime Indiana broadcaster Don Fischer called out Finebaum during Hoosiers running back Kaelon Black’s rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter of their 38-3 win over Alabama.
“What are you thinking now, Paul Finebaum?” Fischer, who has called Indiana sports for 53 years, quipped on the radio broadcast.
Finebaum, who hosts an eponymous show that airs on the SEC Network, initially picked the Crimson Tide to win, though he did admit that he was “swinging for the fences.”
“I think there is so much to this,” Finebaum said during an episode of ESPN’s “First Take” on Monday. “Alabama is a hard team to love. I mean, they lost that first game against Florida State, they got blown out by Georgia, but they have been resilient. In the middle of the season, they knocked off top-ranked team after top-ranked team.”
The Crimson Tide saw little success during their Rose Bowl loss Thursday, however, with the game being lopsided in the Hoosiers’ favor from the start.
Following the game, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said there is a “fine line” between the team’s playoff blowout loss and where they want to be.
“It may not feel like it when you’re in this moment right now and what happened today, but I can tell you it’s a fine between being here and being at the top,” DeBoer told reporters Thursday. “We got to put the work in, you got to believe, you got to be consistent, you got to have discipline and we’ll get back to work and start all over again.”
DeBoer, who is in his second season as Alabama’s head coach after taking over for Nick Saban, complimented Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti and quarterback Fernando Mendoza for their team’s performance.
“They led with a trigger man, made the throws, third-down conversions, just kept them on the football field,” DeBoer said. “They continued to wear us down at the end of the game with the run game. They just execute at a high level, and everyone feeds off each other on both sides of the ball. It’s not just one thing.”
“You’ve got to tip your hat to Coach Cignetti and what he’s done and obviously they’re all aligned,” he added.
