INDIANAPOLIS — While Aiden Fisher served as Indiana football’s defensive leader on the field throughout his two seasons in Bloomington, he often carried head coach Curt Cignetti’s messaging while speaking with reporters off the field.
He donned various Indiana apparel for Tuesday media availabilities inside Memorial Stadium. Oftentimes, he was still in his Crimson uniform in the weight room after home victories with eye black on his face.
But when Fisher stood in front of a group of reporters Wednesday inside the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, answering more questions, he was no longer donning Hoosiers gear. Instead, the linebacker wore a black New Era hoodie emblazoned with “08” above “LB.”
The occasion? The NFL Scouting Combine — a surreal experience Fisher has long dreamt about. Now, it’s arrived.
“For me, I just want to take it all in,” Fisher said. “Like I said, I used to dream and pray about being in this position, so I'd be a fool not to sit down and smell the roses a little bit.”
Throughout the Hoosiers’ historic run to their perfect 16-0 season capped with the program’s first national championship, Fisher often emphasized taking the season one week at a time.
Although Indiana began its season with three dominant victories over lesser opponents, the Hoosiers still treated each test as though they were playing the best team in the country. Then, when they faced those teams — Oregon, Ohio State, the University of Alabama and the University of Miami — the mentality remained the same.
The Hoosiers turned into robots, Fisher said. Each week was the same. They were always focused on the task at hand.
But when the Cream and Crimson returned to Bloomington the day after defeating the Hurricanes in the national title game, there was no team left to prepare and no more victories to chase. It was weird, Fisher said.
He spent the subsequent week in Bloomington before heading to Florida to begin preparing for the combine. It allowed him to get his body and legs underneath him after the College Football Playoff, while also getting to “sober up off that high” of reaching the sport’s summit.
“It took me about a week or two to get my body back healthy and to get running again,” he said. “For me, there was no rush to rush this thing, especially with our pro day as late as it is, but it was all about just getting as healthy as possible, as fast as possible.”
Training for the combine and the Hoosiers’ Pro Day, which is slated for April 1 in Bloomington, is far different from in-season practice. Instead of scheming to stymie a high-powered Big Ten offense, Fisher is essentially training to run fast — something he got a late start at because of Indiana’s CFP run.
While meeting with teams throughout the week and performing positional drills inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Fisher is also preparing for his next football transition.
First, he made the shift from high school to college at James Madison University in 2022, which he admitted was “rough.” Fisher was tasked with learning defensive coordinator Bryant Haines’ complex system. Football was no longer as simple as seeing the ball and then getting it.
“It was never that we're just going to learn our system,” he said. “... We're going to learn football as a whole. And I think that's done amazing things for my development, especially my growth as the knowledge of football goes.”
Then, moving from the Group of Five level at JMU to the Power Four at Indiana was another challenge. The change was “a little tough,” but it provided him with a confidence boost.
While he cemented himself among the nation’s top linebackers and one of the program’s all-time greats throughout his two seasons at Indiana, he’s found an identity outside of football.
“Finding your purpose as to ‘why do you play football?’” Fisher said. “Is it to say I'm the best football player, or is it to say I have a platform that I can use by being a great football player to help other people, help the community, lead men? I think that's what I've done. That's way more important to me.”
Now, he’s set to make his next transition: the NFL.
Fisher is a projected sixth-round selection, per the NFL Mock Draft Database, in the 2026 NFL Draft, which runs from April 23-25 in Pittsburgh. Typically, only prospects likely to become first-round choices choose to attend the draft.
For Fisher, he’ll spend the wait for his long-awaited phone call alongside his family.
“All immediate family, then grandparents, uncles, aunts, all just sitting in my house playing the waiting game,” he said. “It'll be a good experience, but for me, it's just all about having my family around me.”
Soon, one of Indiana’s leaders throughout the program’s meteoric rise to national prominence will be donning a new team’s colors — no longer donning the Cream and Crimson or standard NFL combine apparel.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football offseason.
