Walk the halls of Memorial Stadium and you’ll find a sign listing every Indiana football captain, dating back to Harry Wise in 1887.
The only empty spaces? 2024 and 2025 – an anomaly for most programs, but the norm under head coach Curt Cignetti.
Cignetti does not name official captains. Instead, the same four players walk out for the coin toss every week. Among them, senior linebacker Aiden Fisher is always closest to the head official. He calls on the way.
On Saturday he chose heads – and he did well. Indiana started its biggest game of the year with a narrow victory, led by its loudest voice.
From that throw to the final snapshot of a 30-20 win against No. 3 Oregon, Fisher led the way.
Fisher, a 2024 first-team All-American, filled the stat sheet Saturday afternoon. He recorded 13 tackles and 1.5 sacks on the season.
As the only defensive player who can hear defensive coordinator Bryant Haines on the field, Fisher is entrusted by his teammates to relay the signals before plays.
Fisher and Indiana’s defense had to be nearly perfect to contain Heisman-caliber quarterback Dante Moore and Oregon’s explosive offense.
Moore entered the game and posted video game numbers. His eye-popping fourteen touchdowns to one interception jumped off the page. A big part of Oregon’s success entering the game was its offensive line, which had allowed one sack through five games.
The opening play of the game ended with Kellen Wyatt and Mario Landino combining for a sack of Moore.
It was a tone-setting game that built confidence in the dominant IU defense.
The only hiccup – a 44-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter – didn’t confuse the defense. As they have done all year, they refused to be defined by one play.
With the misfortune in the rearview mirror, Fisher and the Hoosiers refused to give an inch in the second half.
“We had a lot of ugly stuff on film,” he said. “But we just kept fighting and fighting.”
While the offense sputtered, the defense continued to control the game and dominate the Ducks’ offense.
Oregon went into halftime with 203 yards of offense and 10 points. In the second half, the Ducks managed just 64 yards and a field goal.
“When you join a team like [Oregon]You have to be able to manipulate angles and find their weakness, if there is one, and attack it,” Fisher said. “I think we did a good job today.”
Complementary football has been the foundation of Indiana’s success.
In the fourth quarter, quarterback Fernando Mendoza threw a costly pick-six that nearly erased what Indiana’s defense had built.
But he responded with a touchdown pass to Elijah Sarratt to regain the lead – and the defense followed suit, sealing the monumental victory with a pair of interceptions in a three-game span.
Indiana’s dominance wasn’t limited to Saturday. The defense has allowed just 45 points through the first three conference games, including two against top-10 offenses in Illinois and Oregon.
For Fisher, these victories have been years in the making.
The transfer from James Madison said earlier this week that success was the expectation when he followed Cignetti to Indiana. The only difference between last year’s high-leverage games and this year’s, he said, was the belief that the defense could hold its own.
“This is what Indiana football is now,” Fisher said Tuesday. “We are going to play in these big games and expect great results.”
After his expectations came true, Fisher used his post-game press conference to campaign for Coach Cignetti and the Indiana program.
“A lot of people asked, ‘Why do you follow Coach Cignetti instead of other schools?’” he said. “Here’s why. Complete buy-in and complete trust in what Coach Cig is doing here. When you do things like that and it leads to wins like this.”
Fisher arrived in Bloomington in December 2023 when Indiana football was at the bottom of the Big Ten. Not bogged down by the most losing program in history, he wanted to change the way people thought.
“All this team knew was losing football,” he said. “I think from the moment we got here, we’ve done a great job of changing the way Indiana thinks.”
The change in attitude will largely define Fisher’s legacy in Indiana.
When his two-year career ends this season, his name will no longer be on the captain’s board on the north side of Memorial Stadium.
Instead, his name will be etched in history as the most influential player in Indiana’s rise from college football sideshow to emerging powerhouse.
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