NOTEBOOK: Hardy, Jones Pace Another Promising Linebacker Group
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Aiden Fisher is gone, but quality linebackers are not as Indiana faces life after an unprecedented football national championship.
Fisher, as good a player and leader as the Hoosiers have ever had, is preparing for NFL opportunity. In two IU seasons, he totaled 215 tackles and 16.0 for loss while leading a unit that ranked among the nation’s best, allowing just 11.7 points and 266.0 total yards last year.
IU went 27-2 in Fisher’s two years, the best in program history, including last season’s 16-0 national title run.
The Hoosiers are using spring practice to prepare for another championship run, and the linebacker position is critical.
The good news – they are in great shape. Veterans Rolijah Hardy and Isaiah Jones lead what looms as another difference-making group.
Hardy led the Hoosiers with 102 tackles and eight sacks. His 15 tackles for loss were second on the team to Jones’ 15.5. Jones had 78 total tackles, an interception, a forced fumble, a recovered fumble and a blocked kick.
“I can tell you this for sure, Hardy and ‘Bones’ (Jones) are back,” head coach Curt Cignetti says, “and they played winning football. They're going to be two leaders. We're excited about them. We've got some veterans returning (Including Kaiden Turner and Jeff Utzinger) and we've got some young guys that we're excited about.
“It'll be interesting to see how the competition between the returning older guys that are looking to play more minutes and the young guys that have promise, how that plays out.”
Strong player leadership from players such as Fisher, center Pat Coogan, defensive lineman Mikail Kamara and cornerback D’Angelo Ponds were key in last season’s success. All are positioned for NFL opportunity. As far as who will provide similar leadership for next season, Cignetti says it’s too early to tell, but he is confident it will emerge.
“We've got a good core nucleus of guys returning who are seniors who are going to be good leaders. We've got some guys that are juniors that could be good leaders. There are always some new portal guys that are good leaders.
“It's important, and it grows during the spring, but then it really starts to flourish in fall camp and in season. We're going to be in good shape.”
Tino Sunseri is back as quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator. After working for Cignetti at James Madison and IU, Sunseri left last season to become the offensive coordinator at UCLA. Chandler Whitmer replaced him before leaving to be the quarterbacks coach for the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, creating an opening for Sunseri
“You evolve every year, not only schematically but maybe in your processes, and we've evolved, certainly,” Cignetti says.
“Tino's first order of business was to learn the new stuff we did because there's things that we did last year that we didn't do before, and there's things that we're not doing that we did two years ago.”
Cignetti adds that IU will continue to use some of Whitmer’s coaching methods -- including virtual reality technology – that led to impressive success with Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
“We'll recreate some things again this year,” Cignetti says. “There are certainly some things that Chandler did with Mendoza that really helped his development -- virtual reality technology, for one. That's something that we're still doing, and I think it really helps a quarterback's processing.”
Much is expected of veteran receiver Nick Marsh, a 6-foot-3, 213-pound Michigan State transfer who caught 100 passes for 1,311 yards and nine touchdowns in the previous two seasons.
Cignetti says he was impressed with Marsh’s production in those seasons. He was not, however, a fan of the gold shoes Marsh wore for last Thursday’s spring-opening practice.
“I didn't love those gold shoes,” Cignetti says. “He learned what getting your (butt) ripped is all about. I don't know if that happened to him very often at Michigan State. That was a wake-up call. But he's really worked hard and done a great job for us.”
Tyson Brown is the new football director of athletic performance. He previously was the head strength and conditioning coach at Mississippi State and Washington State. He’s also worked at the University of South Florida, the University of Washington, the NFL’s Houston Texans and Baylor.
Cignetti says Brown worked for him for three weeks while he was at Elon before Brown took the top strength-and-conditioning job at Washington State for “four-times the money.”
“I've gotten great feedback from the players and staff, too, on (Brown),” Cignetti says. “Our kids at Elon loved him. I knew him, and he got good reviews. He’s done a nice job.”
Cignetti says IU has 49 defensive players and 33 offensive players participating in spring practice. He says there is “some pretty good depth at some positions” on defense. He says seven offensive players are out because of injuries, and “at least five of them we’re counting on to contribute, many of them start. They’re good players.”
He says there are 18 defensive linemen.
“We have good young players, good old players, and we're playing three groups.”
Cignetti says three tight ends are sidelined for the spring. The Hoosiers have 11 and a half healthy offensive linemen as they roll through groups in practice.
Cignetti says they might switch a few players from defense to offensive line if necessary.
“The most important thing is we get our work in. If we've got to move a guy or two over to offense to help us get the work in so we can keep developing as a football team, we will.”
Overall, IU has adjusted spring practice to accommodate the national championship run, which ended with a Jan. 19 title game victory over Miami to complete the 16-0 season. The only other major college team to ever go 16-0 was Yale at the end of the 19th Century.
“We didn't start training the returning veterans for a couple weeks (after the championship game),” Cignetti says. “We gave them some extra time off.
“Last year, we started spring football practice before spring break, so we're starting later. We've tried to get a blow in there and still get right on the new guys and get the young guys involved as quickly as possible.”
Cignetti will drive the pace car for May’s Indianapolis 500. Going too slow will apparently not be a problem.
“I'm going to put the pedal to the metal when they tell me to in Indy,” he says with a smile.
Checking the calendar to see how close May is ???#Indy500 | #IsItMayYet? pic.twitter.com/BYw1LUvebx
— Indianapolis Motor Speedway (@IMS) March 18, 2026