BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The only part about Indiana’s season-opening win against Old Dominion that felt normal to senior linebacker Aiden Fisher was the end result.
The Hoosiers’ defense, Fisher said, wasn’t aggressive enough, didn’t play hard enough and, plainly, “really didn’t feel like our defense.” Indiana tallied only three tackles for loss and one sack, and Old Dominion quarterback Colton Joseph scored 75- and 78-yard rushing touchdowns.
Indiana, with a collection of new pieces defensively, is still trying to find its footing — but Saturday’s 56-9 victory over Kennesaw State marked a significant step forward.
“(Saturday) felt a lot better,” Fisher said. “A lot more comfortable for our defense. Being able to play fast off each other, get vertical in gaps.”
Indiana’s speed and downhill, attacking style generated 14 tackles for loss, something the Hoosiers have done only once since 2020.
Fisher and senior outside linebacker Kellan Wyatt, who transferred from Maryland in the spring, each had 2.5 tackles for loss. Nine different Hoosiers made at least one stop in the Owls’ backfield.
Indiana’s defense, Fisher said, is built on tackles for loss and explosive plays. The Hoosiers forced two turnovers — an interception from senior safety Louis Moore and a forced fumble from junior cornerback Jamari Sharpe — and didn’t allow a touchdown. Kennesaw State was held to three field goals.
Wyatt said the Hoosiers were “way more disruptive” against Kennesaw State than Old Dominion, helping turn the page on a season-opener that left Indiana desiring better.
“I think we didn't want to have another game like we did last week,” Wyatt said postgame. “We won, obviously, but we had a bad feeling in the taste of our mouth. Like I said, we wanted to come out here and not give them anything. For the most part, we did that besides the field goals.”
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti’s “fast, physical, relentless” slogan applied to the Hoosiers’ defense Saturday. Speed and physicality helped Indiana live in Kennesaw State’s backfield. Relentlessness relieved any anxiety Cignetti had about whether his team has a killer instinct.
Cignetti said postgame Saturday the Hoosiers hadn’t “waxed” an opponent since their 66-0 win over Purdue in the regular season finale last season. It had been 280 days.
Indiana’s second half Saturday certainly counted as a waxing. The Hoosiers outscored Kennesaw State 35-3, and after the Owls made a 50-yard field goal on the opening drive of the third quarter, they didn’t score again.
“Our defense started to penetrate, make plays in their backfield a little bit,” Cignetti said. “So, we took it over.”
Indiana lost several key contributors from last season’s defense, which ranked top 10 nationally in both yards and points allowed.
All-Big Ten honorable mention defensive tackles C.J. West and James Carpenter graduated and moved on to the NFL. Linebacker Jailin Walker, who finished second on the team in tackles (82) and third in tackles for loss (10), graduated, as did secondary members Terry Jones Jr. and Shawn Asbury II.
The Hoosiers started four players — Wyatt, Moore, defensive tackle Hosea Wheeler and rover Devan Boykin — who transferred to Indiana this past offseason and are still adjusting to defensive coordinator Bryant Haines’ system.
After Week 1, the Hoosiers focused on jelling together in practice, Fisher said, which led to a more cohesive, unified defensive effort in Week 2.
Part of Indiana’s season-opening defensive lapses stemmed from the oddities of Old Dominion’s offense. The Monarchs play up tempo with wider-than-usual splits and unbalanced and empty sets. It’s an unconventional style.
Nevertheless, the Hoosiers needed to see if their defense, with a wealth of new faces, could execute Haines’ scheme at a high level. Saturday proved the unit is more than capable, which Fisher acknowledged is a relief.
“I think when we bring guys in, too, we know they can fit our system. They buy in quick and they want to play in our system,” Fisher said. “At the end of the day, we just played a lot better defense holistically.”
Indiana continues to wage war against minute details.
The Hoosiers missed eight tackles in Week 2, according to Pro Football Focus. Fisher didn’t need the stats to know Indiana had a sloppy tackling performance and, at times, took poor angles in pursuit. He said he and his teammates were upset about leaving “a lot of opportunities out there,” and Indiana understands it has plenty to clean up moving forward.
The Hoosiers have already proven to be quick studies.
After Joseph’s two explosive runs in Week 1, Indiana’s defense honed in on correcting missed assignments on quarterback rushing plays. The Hoosiers’ offense snuck them in during practice, and each time, the defense produced a tackle for loss.
Kennesaw State has a pair of mobile quarterbacks in Dexter Williams II and Amari Odom. The duo’s longest run Saturday was eight yards.
“Just being able to learn and grow, and obviously a lot of new faces on a defense that is pretty complex to the mind — I think we've done a great job with it,” Fisher said. “Absorbing that, learning from our mistakes and kind of moving forward.”
Through two games, Cignetti has been pleased with Indiana’s defense. Apart from Joseph’s touchdown runs, Cignetti thought the Hoosiers dominated Old Dominion, and they had more tackles for loss (14) against Kennesaw State than the Owls had first downs (10).
Indiana remains a work-in-progress. Kennesaw State had eight plays of at least 15 yards, and the Hoosiers are still susceptible to giving up explosives — but they showed Saturday they have the ingredients to be stout defensively once more.
“I think mentally everybody's bought in,” Fisher said. “Everybody wants to win. Everybody wants to play our style of defense, which is fast and vertical, and everybody's aggressive to the ball. It's a fun defense to play in. Everybody's bought in. It's just a matter of meshing together, gelling together and playing off each other a little bit better.”
And the more Indiana does that, the more normal it’ll feel to Fisher — and, as history suggests, the more dominant the Hoosiers’ defense will be.