{"id":111859,"date":"2025-12-29T02:10:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T02:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/111859\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T02:10:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T02:10:14","slug":"rose-bowl-2026-alabama-is-not-intimidated-by-fernando-mendoza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/111859\/","title":{"rendered":"Rose Bowl 2026: Alabama is not intimidated by Fernando Mendoza"},"content":{"rendered":"

p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> <\/p>\n

Alabama understands that stopping Indiana\u2019s powerful offense in the Rose Bowl<\/a> on New Year\u2019s Day starts with containing Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c[Mendoza] is operating at a really high level,\u201d Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack<\/a> said. \u201cWhen you watch the tape and the challenge, really the cry for our guys [is] to have to operate at a really consistent level, and you\u2019re going to have to take away those windows that he\u2019s wanting to get the ball through.\u201d<\/p>\n

During top-seeded Indiana\u2019s undefeated season, Mendoza threw for 2,980 yards and 33 touchdowns for a team that ranked eighth in total offense (472.8 yards per game). Despite his impressive numbers, ninth-seeded Alabama isn\u2019t showing signs of being intimidated by Mendoza heading into the College Football Playoff<\/a> quarterfinal showdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a man, just like me,\u201d Alabama defensive lineman Tim Keenan III said. \u201cHe put himself in a position to achieve the accolades, so we need to make sure we do what we need to, to play our game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Alabama safety Keon Sabb: \u201cCongrats to him for winning [the Heisman], but we\u2019ll play our game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alabama is planning to put pressure on Mendoza in an effort to force potential turnovers and limit Indiana\u2019s attack, cornerback Zabien Brown said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to stop quarterbacks whether they\u2019ve won the Heisman Trophy or not,\u201d Wommack added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> Alabama understands that stopping Indiana\u2019s powerful offense in the Rose Bowl on New Year\u2019s Day starts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28848,1794,3760,37226,423,6135,59335,9520,48,52,51,47,50,49,3238,60069,11491,10657,780,8843,1539],"class_list":["post-111859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alabama","tag-attack","tag-challenge","tag-fernando-mendoza","tag-game","tag-guy","tag-hoosiers","tag-indiana","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-play","tag-potential-turnover","tag-quarterback","tag-rose-bowl","tag-touchdown","tag-way","tag-yard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}