The Indiana defense fell the the offense 31-23 in the annual spring game on Thursday night. While it was a defeat, the defense showed flashes of what could be another excellent unit in 2025. The Hoosiers were without linebacker Aiden Fisher who was held out for precautionary reasons, but it proved to be a chance for others to step up.

“Well, we all know what Fish is and Hardy and Isaiah Jones is a veteran and a savvy guy, can play two positions, and after that we've got to develop some more depth.” Cignetti said of the linebacking room.

The star on defense for the Hoosiers was redshirt sophomore Rolijah Hardy, who burst onto the scene and into a starting role in the second half of 2024.

“He's been a starter all spring. Just like Fernando, his last week of spring was really, really good, and that's how we need him to play when he comes back in the fall. He's got a lot of talent.” Cignetti said or Hardy.

Hardy made the play of the night with a 43-yard pick six and his fellow linebacker, Aiden Fisher, is just amazed at his instincts to find the ball.

“The ball just finds that dude. I don’t know how he does it, I don’t know what he does, but the ball is always in his hands.” Fisher excitedly said. “But throughout the entire spring, you saw him take a step every single day. Whether that’s beating a block, getting more surface area on tackles, he did something every single day to get better. I think he showed it a lot tonight, a TFL, stuffing guys coming down hill on the pick six. Just really proud of his development and I think this summer it’s really just going to skyrocket and by August 30 he’ll be ready to go.”

Freshmen Defensive Backs Stand Out

The Hoosiers secondary is loaded with known commodities such as D’Angelo Ponds, Amare Ferrell and Jamari Sharpe, but it was a trio of freshmen who stood out the most on Thursday night. Byron Baldwin, Seaonta Stewart and Jaylen Bell all made big plays on defense.

“Those guys bring a lot of energy every day. Sometimes we have to tone them down a little bit with hitting and stuff like that. Those guys will learn, and they are learning quickly. They came in wanting to learn, so I like those guys. I think they will help us in some type of way this year.” Ponds said of the freshmen.

It took some time for Cignetti to complement Byron Baldwin, but he finally did.

“Well, I think all the freshmen have a long way to go. We have a lot of them, and when you compare the freshmen -- when you've been used to like the COVID extra year guys, for instance, and you're in the portal and you're coaching 25-, 24-, 23-year-old kids, you forget what coaching 17-, 18-year-old kids is like, especially ones that come in and enroll in school in January in the NIL era.” Cignetti said. “We've got some talented guys that will be good players at this level, but we've got a lot of them that got to grow up. But I thought Bond gave us a really good effort, practice in, practice out, and certainly Byron Baldwin, he flies around, got a lot of talent, likes contact, good ball skills. There was others, too.”