Noah Pierre taking advantage of recent opportunity

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Indiana's defense has been the lone bright spot in the 2021 season but it hasn't come without some struggle.

Most notably, injuries have been a huge part to the defensive unit. Whether it is Devon Matthews, Tiawan Mullen, Reese Taylor, Raheem Layne or more, the Hoosiers have had to plug and play with some of their reserve players in different positions than normal.

One of those players who has stepped up has been redshirt junior DB Noah Pierre.

Pierre was mainly a special teams player last season, but has now stepped into a bigger role and one that he's already taking advantage of.

"He's a tough kid, physically tough, strong, showed up on special teams all last year," IU head coach Tom Allen said. "To me, that's always a great indicator of how well they're going to play if they're a young guy in our defense moving forward."