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Scrutinized and criticized after a season-opening loss to Florida State, the Alabama Crimson Tide have spent the remainder of the season focused on growth, resilience and a shift in leadership mentality as they prepare for their College Football Playoff quarterfinal game against No. 1 Indiana on Thursday at the Rose Bowl.

Crimson Tide quarterback Ty Simpson said the early criticism served as motivation for the team.

“I think the first game everybody kind of wrote us off — especially me as being a problem — and that really made me feel some type of way,” Simpson said. “Adversity brings opportunity and this was an opportunity to make things right. I know that not only was I getting scrutinized, but our head coach was as well. As much respect as I have for him, I had to scratch and claw and find some way to get better. With more time, more reps, more games in general, I got better.”

Simpson’s leadership has evolved steadily over the course of the season, becoming a focal point of Alabama’s offensive identity.

Following the season-opening loss, Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer emphasized areas of growth for his quarterback, particularly in decision-making and confidence.

“He’s gotta just trust his reads and just cut it loose sometimes and let it fly,” DeBoer said. “And then just some decision-making there in certain critical moments, that’s the things he’s going to learn from.”

DeBoer said Simpson’s ability to cope with adversity throughout the season helped Alabama as it prepares for for the Rose Bowl.

“There’s the ups and downs and every game is not going to be perfect, but his response and just what he’s played through, it can be the mental part the physical part,” DeBoer said. “Wins, losses he’s just continued to stay the course.”

Alabama turns its attention to Indiana and Heisman winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who presents a significant challenge heading into Thursday’s CFP quarterfinal matchup.

”Everybody sees him as the guy and of course he won the Heisman Trophy. That’s motivation for me, I know I am going head-to-head with him, but the opportunity to go against the No. 1 team in the nation, sign me up,” Simpson said. “I am a competitor and I am excited for it and being able to play in this game against a good team is what I want.”

As the Crimson Tide prepare for Indiana’s physical rushing attack, Simpson and the offense continue working to put all the pieces together under pressure.

Receiver Ryan Williams has emerged as a key offensive weapon, using his speed to make defenders miss and create opportunities.

“We’re going to make sure we have plays to give him the ball and I have to make sure I understand my read and give him the ball,” Simpson said of Williams.” It’s my job to make sure the offense reads the ball, whether Ryan is the first read or the last read. I’m going to throw it to the open guy and make sure we’re in a good position.”

While Alabama may be fueled by external criticism and its underdog role, the team is spending its last stretch before the Rose Bowl focused on blocking out outside noise and embracing its internal standard.

“We write it on our whiteboard every game, ‘All about Bama,’ That’s all it’s ever about — Bama,” Simpson said. “All about these guys in here and the coaches. Alabama against the world, that’s kind of been our mindset of just making sure its all for one and one for all.”

PHOENIX — Camdyn Glover used to be a quiet conservative. She worried what her teachers would think or if she would lose friends over her convictions. But she said something changed when Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September, and she started crying in her classroom at Indiana University while other students cheered and clapped.

“We can’t be silenced,” Glover decided.

Now she’s visiting Phoenix with her parents and brothers for this year’s Turning Point USA conference, the first to take place since Kirk’s death. Although the organization became a political phenomenon with its masculine appeals to college men, it’s also been expanding outreach to young women like Glover. The shift is poised to accelerate now that Turning Point is led by Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, who has embraced her new role at the helm of a conservative juggernaut with chapters across the country.

If successful, the organization that helped return President Trump to the White House could narrow a gender divide that has been a persistent challenge for Republicans. Turning Point offers a blend of traditional values, such as encouraging women to prioritize marriage over careers, and health trends pushed by online influencers.

Glover, 18, said discovering Turning Point in high school gave her an appreciation for dialogue when she felt like an outcast for her beliefs, such as being anti-abortion. At her first conference, she feels like she’s found a political and cultural home for herself.

“They want to promote a strong independent woman who does hold these values and can go stand up for herself,” she said. “But it’s also OK to do it in heels, put some makeup on, wear a dress.”

‘If Erika can do it, I can do it’

One of Glover’s classmates, Stella Ross, said she stumbled upon Charlie Kirk on TikTok in the months before the last presidential election.

She already felt like her perspectives were being treated differently on campus and thought she was receiving unfairly low grades in her political science classes. A devout Catholic, Ross said she was inspired by how Charlie Kirk wasn’t afraid to weave his evangelical faith into his political arguments.

She also noticed how many women posted comments of appreciation on Erika Kirk’s videos, and she joined Indiana University’s Turning Point chapter in the same month that Trump won his comeback campaign.

“I was like, wow, if Erika can do it, I can do it,” Ross said.

Ross has career aspirations of her own — she interns with Indiana’s Republican Party and aspires to be a press secretary for a governor or president. But she hopes to have flexibility in her job to be fully present with her children and believes that a traditional nuclear structure — man, woman and their children — is “God’s plan.”

When she thinks of Erika Kirk, “it’s really cool to see that she can live out that balance and it makes me feel like that could be a more realistic future for me because I’m seeing it firsthand.”

A new messenger

Erika Kirk often appeared alongside with her husband at Turning Point events. A former beauty pageant winner who has worked as a model, actress and casting director, she also founded a Christian clothing line and a ministry that teaches about the Bible.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, she said she had fully bought into “boss babe” culture before Charlie showed her a “healthier” perspective on life. Now she leads the multimillion-dollar organization, which she said at a memorial for her husband would be made “10 times greater through the power of his memory.”

The political gap between young men and women has been growing for years, according to a recent Gallup analysis. Not only have women under 30 become more likely to identify as ideologically liberal, they’ve also embraced liberal views on issues such as abortion, the environment and gun laws.

The schism was clearly apparent in the last presidential election, where 57% of male voters under 30 supported Trump, compared to only 41% of women under 30, according to AP VoteCast.

Turning Point has been working to change that, hosting events like the Young Women’s Leadership Summit and urging attendees to embrace traditional family values and gender roles.

Charlie Kirk said earlier this year that if a young woman’s priority is to find a husband, she should go to college for a “MRS degree.” Matthew Boedy, a professor of rhetoric at University of North Georgia, said Erika Kirk could be a more effective messenger because she was focused on her career before meeting her husband.

“I do think her story resonates more because she tried it out and can tell them it is not for them,” he said.

Some conservative women are turned off by this approach. Raquel Debono, an influencer who lives in New York City, described the event as a “Stepford wives conference,” featuring women in pink floral dresses.

She said Turning Point’s emphasis on being traditional wives “leaves out a lot of women who work,” she said, “and I think they’re going to lose all those voters, honestly, in the next election cycle if they keep it up.”

Debono founded her own organization, Make America Hot Again, where she throws parties intended to make voters feel welcomed into the conservative movement and allow them to get to know people who share their politics.

‘Big time’ growth for some chapters

Aubree Hudson had been president of Turning Point’s chapter at Brigham Young University for only two weeks when she visited nearby Utah Valley University for an event with Charlie Kirk.

She said she was standing only about six feet away when he was fatally shot. She ran to find her husband, who was at the back of the crowd, and they fled to her car.

Hudson, 22, is from a rural farm town in southwestern Colorado. Her conservative convictions are rooted in her family’s faith and patriotism. A copy of the U.S. Constitution hangs in her parents’ home, and her father taught her to value God, family and country, in that order. Her mother stayed at home, telling her children that “you guys are my career.”

Since Kirk’s assassination, Hudson said the number of people — particularly women — getting involved with the organization jumped “big time.”

Emma Paskett, 18, is one of them. She was planning to attend the Utah Valley University event after one of her classes, but Kirk was shot before she made it there.

Although she wasn’t very familiar with Turning Point before that point, Paskett said she started watching videos of Kirk later that night.

Paskett considers Erika Kirk to be a “one in a million” role model, and her role as a leader was a driving factor in signing up.

“That’s exactly what I want to be like,” she said.

Govindarao writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux contributed to this report from Washington.