Aiden Fisher says Curt Cignetti built Indiana’s rise with overlooked players

Curt Cignetti was named AP Coach of the Year on Dec. 17, 2024 after leading Indiana to 11 wins and a College Football Playoff berth, and Aiden Fisher has put the Hoosiers’ rise down to a roster built from players other programs overlooked. Indiana’s jump was not powered by blue-chip pedigree. It came from identifying production, toughness and fit, then stacking enough of those pieces fast enough to remake the program.

Cignetti’s first Indiana roster reflected that approach. Indiana added 13 James Madison players with him, and Indiana Athletics said in a May 20, 2024 release that spring transfer additions capped the 2024 recruiting class. CBS Sports noted that the roster had no five-star recruits at all, a striking detail for a team that finished as one of the country’s biggest surprises. The Hoosiers went 11-2, scored 537 points and averaged 41.3 per game, second nationally, while allowing 203 points, or 15.6 per game, sixth nationally. Sports Reference listed Indiana with a 16.33 SRS, eighth in the country.

Fisher fits the model almost perfectly. A February 2026 Indiana Daily Student profile said Fisher was a zero-star recruit out of Riverbend High School in Fredericksburg, Virginia when Cignetti offered him a scholarship at James Madison in 2021. Indiana listed Fisher at 6-foot-1 and 233 pounds on its 2024 and 2025 roster pages, and he turned that frame into a production season in Bloomington. In 13 games in 2024, Fisher finished with 118 total tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, four passes broken up and three quarterback hurries.

That kind of output from an overlooked linebacker is why Indiana’s turnaround drew so much national attention. ESPN, AP and CBS Sports all framed the Hoosiers as an example of how transfer-portal roster building can accelerate a rebuild far more quickly than old recruiting hierarchies once allowed. Indiana did not wait for a traditional talent pipeline to deliver a breakthrough. Cignetti assembled one from players other programs passed over, and Fisher became one of the clearest examples of how well that formula worked.