Linebackers Walker, Fisher Bring Winning Mentality From James Madison to Indiana

Linebackers Jailin Walker and Aiden Fisher played a key role in James Madison’s success under Curt Cignetti. Now they’re hoping to revitalize the Indiana football program.

Indiana linebacker Jailin Waker pictured during fall camp. / Indiana Athletics

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Linebacker Aiden Fisher recalled a message delivered by coach Curt Cignetti in the early months of his tenure as Indiana’s new football coach. 

“His thing was we’re gonna get rid of everything that Indiana football has had the past couple years with the downhill side of things, and we’re going to revamp this entire program,” Fisher said last week at Big Ten Media Days. “We’re going to build this program into a winner, and we’re going to have a lot of success.” 

Fisher is used to impassioned speeches from Cignetti from his freshman and sophomore seasons at James Madison. That’s part of the reason he wanted to tackle a rebuilding project with his coach at Indiana, which has won a Big Ten-low nine game over the last three seasons. One of 13 James Madison transfers on Indiana’s 2024 roster, Fisher said they’ve made an effort to get the rest of the roster to buy into Cignetti’s process and culture.

Cignetti said after the first practice that he wants to see more consistency in performance, a standard Jailin Walker, another transfer linebacker from James Madison, learned to meet during his first three seasons of college. He put Indiana’s new identity simply.

“Win,” Walker answered Thursday after the Hoosiers’ second practice of fall camp.

Fisher and Walker started alongside each other at linebacker last season as James Madison went 11-2 and climbed as high as No. 18 in the AP top-25 poll. The Dukes led the nation with 114 tackles for loss and run defense, allowing just 61.5 rushing yards per game.

Fisher emerged as a starter after an injury to Taurus Jones, and he ended up leading James Madison with 108 total tackles on his way to earning third-team All-Sun Belt honors. He credited those accomplishments to extra film study, improving on the mental side of the game and help from Walker, a 20-game starter over the last two seasons.

Now with the Hoosiers, Walker and Fisher are two top candidates to lead Indiana’s linebacking corps with fall camp beginning this week. They’re roommates, which they believe helps their chemistry on the field. Walker often calls Fisher by his nickname “White Wolf,” given to him because “he’s a dog,” Walker said.

“I just feel like our bond is special,” Walker said. “We can just rely on each other. We can communicate and we know the standard. So if I’m down, he can always hold me up and I can hold him up. That’s my brother.”

Defensive coordinator Bryant Haines is another James Madison-to-Indiana transplant, and his system relies heavily on production from linebackers like Walker and Fisher. As an unranked recruit out of Varina High School in Henrico, Va., Walker said his special bond with Haines is the reason he transferred to Indiana.

“[Haines] was the only coach that came to my high school, and he actually met me in person,” Walker said. “So ever since then I felt like we had a great bond. He leans on me a lot, and he wants me to be the best player I can be. He’s tough on me, so it makes me a better player.”

They have big shoes to fill in the middle of Indiana’s defense, which lost first-team All-Big Ten linebacker Aaron Casey, who ranked third nationally with 20 tackles for loss. Walker said Haines expects his linebackers to know as much as he knows about the defense, including the secondary and defensive line’s responsibilities. 

“It’s fun,” Walker said of playing for Haines. “The motto is fast, physical, relentless. So Haines’ defense relies on speed and blitzes. He says freedom equals discipline, so he just lets us fly around, make plays and just enjoy it with the guys.”

Walker spent his first months as a Hoosier recovering from a torn labrum that required surgery after the 2023 season. He didn’t play in Indiana’s spring game in April, instead moving into a different role as “coach J-Walk,” he called himself Thursday.

While injured, Walker said he tried to coach up the linebackers, and it helped to have previous knowledge of Haines’ system. He also prayed every day for a speedy recovery and credited Indiana’s training staff for their help in the process.

Indiana began fall camp on Wednesday, and Walker was thankful to be back on the field.

“It felt great,” Walker said. “The first day back was yesterday. It felt great to be back. I’m just happy to play football again.”

The transition for Walker and Fisher to a new school is eased by their institutional knowledge of Cignetti’s program approach and playing in Haines’ system. That allows them to help returning Hoosiers and transfers from other schools learn what is expected of them under the new coaching staff. 

But aside from the X’s and O’s of the linebacker position, Walker and Fisher are part of a program-wide effort to change the way people think about Indiana football – what Cignetti highlighted as his biggest challenge during his introductory press conference.

Walker said he wasn’t much of a leader during his freshman and sophomore seasons, but he’s trying to improve in that area as a Hoosier.

“Really I try to engrave that winning mindset,” Walker said. “There are other players that come from other organizations and programs, and they might not build that winning mindset that coach Cig built in us. So I just try to lean on them a little bit and try to get them encouraged and try to get them to be the best player they can be.”

Though Fisher has only been a Hoosier for a couple months, he has quickly learned how special turning around the Indiana football program would be.

“Bloomington itself is a very special place,” Fisher said. “I learned that very quickly. You take the visit, the resources that Indiana has are amazing. The people around Bloomington and in the area are extremely supportful of the program, and at the end of the day they just want a winner.” 

“There’d be nothing better than to feel that when I can give them a winner, me and my teammates are giving them a winning football program year in and year out and that’s what we came here to do.”