During Aiden Fisher’s high school football practices, coaches had to rein him in.
The current IU linebacker was a two-way standout at Riverbend High in Fredericksburg, Va. Former head coach Nathan Yates said Fisher was always vocal on the field, calling out audibles and checks to his teammates. His mind worked faster than everyone else’s on the field — he was shouting things out before the rest of the defense knew what was going on.
And Yates sometimes had to quiet Fisher down to make sure everyone else saw the same things.
“We would almost have to tell him, like, ‘Hey, let’s let you stop for a second, and let’s make sure that everybody else is seeing what you’re seeing, so that they’re not just relying on you to give them every bit of information.’ Because we knew he knew it,” Yates told The Daily Hoosier in a phone interview. “He saw things very quickly. He diagnosed things quickly.”
Fisher excelled at linebacker, quarterback, and running back for the Bears, earning all-district honors at all three positions during his high school career. At Riverbend, Yates and his staff capitalized on Fisher’s athleticism on offense and put the ball in his hands as much as possible. He played running back as a sophomore, moved to quarterback for his junior year, and then returned to the backfield as a senior.
His skill set made him a reliable offensive weapon.
“He had it all,” Yates said. “For a high school kid, he was big, he was fast, very strong. And he was just smart. He’s one of the most cerebral football players I’ve ever coached. Understood the game, understood situations, and it just made him somebody that he could rely on in big situations. You knew if it was a play that he made, he was going to do it.”
But Fisher’s natural fit was always at linebacker. He was named Region 5A and Commonwealth District Defensive Player of the Year honors as a senior, as he dominated both physically and mentally.
Fisher knew he was better defensively. And later in high school, he realized that he preferred dishing the hits to taking them.
“Going into my senior year when I switched to running back and you start taking more hits than you were taking at quarterback … it feels a lot better than to hit somebody than to get hit,” Fisher said during a press conference on Thursday. “So that (is what) kind of flipped the switch. ‘Let’s go hit people and not get hit.'”
Fisher landed with head coach Curt Cignetti at James Madison in the class of 2022. And by his second season in Harrisonburg, he was thriving with the Dukes. Fisher led JMU as a sophomore last year with 108 combined tackles, which ranked fifth in the Sun Belt. He earned an All-Sun Belt third team selection. He looked like an emerging force within the conference.
But after Cignetti, defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, and several other assistants left for Indiana in the offseason, Fisher entered the transfer portal. He wasn’t always set on following the JMU staff to Bloomington — he had interest from other programs, including Arizona State and Cincinnati.
But ultimately, the relationships he’d built with Cignetti, Haines, and the rest of the staff made the difference. Fisher didn’t want to give up those connections.
“The biggest thing for me was just continuing my development with coach Haines,” Fisher said. “Him, coach Cignetti, and the system they put me in, and kind of the way I’ve seen myself grow so far, not only as a player but as a person and a leader, I didn’t see a reason to stop that, and it’s definitely something I want to keep chasing.”
Fisher will have an opportunity to earn a significant role this coming season. IU has openings at inside linebacker after Aaron Casey graduated and Jacob Mangum-Farrar moved to stud in Haines’ system.
As one of 10 transfers from JMU, the Hoosiers have leaned on Fisher as a leader in spring camp. He already knew Haines’ system, and was already familiar with Cignetti’s practice structure and coaching style. He made a point of being around his new teammates as much as he could when he arrived in Bloomington during the offseason, wanting to integrate himself within the team and get to know the rest of the team.
Fisher will look to similarly establish himself on the field in the fall. He knows competing in the Big Ten is a step up from the Sun Belt, and he’s eager to prove himself on the bigger stage.
That’s a mentality Fisher has embraced for years. Yates took over at Riverbend after Fisher’s freshman year, when the team endured a rough 1-9 season. Those struggles sparked a similar motivator for the linebacker — he wanted to help turn around the program and show his worth in doing so.
Yates said Fisher just relishes the chance to prove he belongs, whether it was at Riverbend or JMU, or at IU now.
“People would talk about our program and how we weren’t a good team, and he took it upon himself to kind of prove all the people wrong,” Yates said. “And I think when he was able to do that, it kind of just embedded in him that like, ‘OK, this is who I am. I’m the guy that’s going to go out and prove myself. And you can say whatever you want, but I will show you.'”
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