LOS ANGELES – One All-American and two All-Big Ten level players headline a single linebacker room. Senior Aiden Fisher, junior Isaiah Jones, and sophomore Rolijah Hardy were all honored on some scale: Fisher the All-American, Hardy an All-Big Ten Second Team defense honoree, and Jones an Honorable Mention for the Big Ten defense.
One of the best defenses in the NCAA has arguably the strongest combination of skill and depth in their linebacker room. That group has helped Indiana reach the Rose Bowl, facing Alabama at 4 p.m. Eastern on Thursday in Pasadena.
“I say that confidence comes through preparation,” Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines said.
That line from Haines is written down on a white board in the linebacker room. They live by it. It’s their standard.
That standard is what has led to the individual success of the three linebackers, but also the entire defense.
“You can’t go out there and run the defense and not know what everyone’s doing, you can’t go out there,” Jones said at Rose Bowl media day on Tuesday morning.
The linebackers require themselves to know what every single one of the 11 players on defense need to do to even be able to step between the white lines.
The standard has equated to Indiana boasting the second best scoring defense in college football (10.8 PPG allowed); the fourth best total defense (257 YPG allowed); the eighth most turnovers created (25); leading to the best turnover margin in football (+17).
The Indiana defense is one that constantly runs multiple formations, a 3-3-5, a 4-3, and a 4-2-5 all using different personnel groups. Whoever is calling that defense has to know everything about it. Fisher wears the green dot mainly to call the defense, but Jones had to step up and do it when Fisher missed a game and a half due to injury. And Hardy was right by Jones’s side to help.
“They played great in those games and it was very special to see,” Fisher said on Tuesday.
Fisher came to Indiana with Haines, Jones was at IU for two years and stayed on during the Cignetti transition, and Hardy was a 0-star recruit in Cignetti’s first recruiting class.
All three players are guys who have been overlooked in the past, but it doesn’t bother them. They stick to the standard and have bonded to form something great.
“We do a great job of, if somebody makes a mistake, another linebacker fixing them over the top,” Fisher said on Tuesday morning.
The group is in a flow state at this point of the season. Their chemistry, confidence and preparation has created such a skilled room. The chemistry comes from constant time together, both on and off the field.
Hardy says the group is “laser focused” at practice or when they’re playing games together. Video games are a regular occurrence, including NBA 2K, Fortnite, MLB the Show, but Monopoly the board game too. It gets heated at times, sometimes playing in the gray area.
“You got to make sure certain people [pauses and looks directly at Aiden Fisher on the podium to his right] aren’t cheating,” Jones said while laughing. “You can’t let Aiden sit by the bank. Somehow he comes up with all the extra money.”
The three linebackers tell stories about bonding like they’re brothers. They light up every time they start to talk about competing against each other or thinking about how well one of the others has played.
It’s not common to see a brotherhood like that amongst players, especially those competing for playing time. But in the Indiana Hoosier linebacker room, it’s just different.
“At the end of the day, they want what’s best for each other because they’re teammates,” Haines said. “They’re brothers.”
