Miami’s players and staff were so worried about Aiden Fisher, they were calling previous IU opponents for tips and clues on how to fool the All-American linebacker.
Coming into the national championship game, Fisher had developed quite the reputation for knowing what play was coming.
After IU’s defense locked down Ohio State, Alabama and Oregon in succession, predictable conspiracies surfaced from frustrated fans.
Was Indiana somehow stealing signs, or hacking into opposing computer systems or headsets?
You know the drill, if you can’t beat ’em, accuse ’em.
But Fisher was having none of it.
“We watch film, we study, we prepare,” Fisher said in January. “I know a lot of people put different things out, but we just do a great job of preparing. We see hints and things we can see throughout our preparation and we have the best defensive coordinator in college football, when you match all those things you get off to fast starts as defense.”
Miami knew better than to buy into the nonsense too.
In an NFL Draft Combine interview with Brett Kollmann, Miami offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa said the Hurricanes called Oregon center Iapani Laloulu for tips on how to deceive Fisher at the line of scrimmage.
“Number 4 (Fisher) gave a little bit of trouble. I remember one play, we was calling a wide zone, and we always make a dummy call to try and dummy ’em up,” said Mauigoa. “Because we called the Oregon center, Poncho, and he was like ‘Bro, he (Fisher) played quarterback. So he knows everything, he knows the universal language.’
“So we were like, ‘Ok, we gotta dummy this up.’ So our dummy call was disco.”
Miami’s attempts to deceive Fisher had little effect.
“The guy came up to the line of scrimmage, it’d be like, ‘Hey, they’re running wide zone to this side,'” Mauioga said. “I’m looking at them, I’m looking at the center, I’m looking at the quarterback like ‘Are we gonna tease the play or what?'”
The Fredericksburg, Va. product made a career of frustrating opposing offenses.
Fisher had four tackles including a sack and tackle for loss in the national championship. He finished the 2025 season with 97 tackles with 10.5 for a loss and 4.5 sacks.
Including his two seasons at James Madison, he appeared in 51 career games with 39 starts. He became Indiana’s first-ever first-team All-America linebacker in 2024 (FWAA, Phil Steele), the first-ever Hoosier defender to earn multiple first-team All-America nods and first back-to-back first-team All-American since offensive lineman Dan Feeney (2015-16).
“It’s hard to put into words how important he’s been,” Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines said of Fisher. “He’s part of the culture change here. He’s part of my voice, my mouth piece to the guys on the field. He’s the green dot. He’s the leader. He’s the unquestioned leader.
“He knows what I want, and he’s able to get it done and gets his ten teammates to play the right call. Yeah, I can’t say enough good things about him and what he means to this defense.”
Fisher was invited to the NFL Draft Combine, and he’s expected to be drafted in April.
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