Indiana football 2026 position preview: Linebackers

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With the 2026 Indiana football season rapidly approaching, we’re going through the Hoosiers’ roster with position by position previews as the program moves into a post-national title era.

We’ll be previewing the offense first this week with the defense following next week. Follow along!

Positions

• Cornerbacks

Linebackers

Isaiah Jones – Sr (5)

• 2025 stats: 78 tackles, 7 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 1 interception

Jones’ 2025 production speaks for itself in both his stats and anyone who watched Indiana play. He emerged in the Hoosiers’ defense from more of a backup role in 2024 to Bryant Haines finding more and more ways to use him on the field alongside both Aiden Fisher and Rolijah Hardy.

With Fisher off to the NFL, Jones slides over into his spot as the defense’s leader and Haines’ go-to guy. There’s simply no replacing Fisher and his wealth of on-field knowledge, but having Jones ready to take his spot is about as good of a situation as you could’ve hoped for.

Pardon the cliche, but it feels worth mentioning that Jones was always at his best in Indiana’s biggest games in 2025. He chipped in eight tackles with a second quarter sack on third down to force a punt when Indiana took down Oregon on the road, picked up two sacks against Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game, recovered a fumble against Alabama in the Rose Bowl and recovered a blocked punt in the endzone against Miami in the National Championship Game to extend Indiana’s lead. When there’s plays to be made, he’s there making them, which is, well, exactly what a linebacker needs to be doing.

Two years of learning alongside Fisher should serve Jones well and Haines is going to put him in the position to do what he does best.

Rolijah Hardy – Jr

• 2025 stats: 103 tackles, 8 sacks

Indiana’s 2025 sacks leader is back in the fold for 2026.

Hardy is one of the most interesting players on Indiana’s entire roster, let alone the defense. He was a late addition to the 2024 roster, joining after Spring football had wrapped up. He’d signed with Navy out of high school as a member of the class of 2023 and spent his first post-high school season with the Naval Academy Preparatory School.

He made an immediate impact as part of Indiana’s linebacker corps in 2024, playing sparingly before emerging as a full-time starter in 2025. Like Jones, Haines also has plenty of ways to use him to confuse opposing quarterbacks, flying in to force pressure as the defensive line is bearing down, keying in on opposing running backs or holding up in coverage.

Hardy just knows how to use his talent. He’s not the biggest guy on the field, at all, at 5’11” but uses that to his advantage. He’s going against bigger players in every situation but tackling opposing running backs, so he uses that size to swim past them and go low, forcing awkward angles that allow him to slip through and make the plays he’s known for. He broke up a pass intended for 6’6” Ohio State tight end Bennett Christian last year because he read the play and found the right angle to attack.

Watching Hardy play is an absolute treat and he should be in for another strong season in 2026.

Kaiden Turner – Sr (5)

• 2025 stats: 10 tackles, 1 interception

The Fisher-Jones-Hardy trio allowed Haines to play three linebackers last season. Someone needs to step up if Indiana wants to keep doing that.

Turner has been a reserve for all of his four previous seasons with Indiana, seeing a bit more playing time in 2025, albeit typically in the late stages of non-competitive games. He logged a start against Maryland when Indiana was without Fisher due to injury.

We simply haven’t seen enough of Turner to know whether or not he could step into a third linebacker role or would operate as more of a depth piece behind Jones and Hardy, but I’d lean toward the latter role.

Jeff Utzinger – Sr (5)

• 2025 stats: 16 tackles

Utzinger joined Indiana as a walk-on back in 2022 and has since been put on scholarship as a contributor, both as depth on defense and on special teams.

His role grew ever so slightly from 2024 to 2025, with Indiana getting more snaps for him at linebacker in late game situations. He’ll contend with Turner for that potential third linebacker spot while providing a solid, experienced depth presence in the room.

The Depth

There simply isn’t a ton of proven production in this room behind Jones and Hardy. That’s not to say its poor or talent-deficient, not at all, rather noting that there’s a real opportunity for someone lower on the depth chart to make a name for themselves as Hardy did in 2024.

Indiana has two other options who saw the field sparingly last season. If either has something to show, we could see it relatively early.

PJ Nelson – S0

• 2025 stats: 1 tackle

Nelson’s lone tackle occurred during kickoff coverage at Maryland when Indiana’s depth was tested a tad with Fisher out. Someone needed to fill in on special teams.

He was a 3-star prospect coming out of high school in Cincinnati, Ohio, and put up big numbers as a junior and senior. We’ll see if he can carry that into the collegiate level.

Amari Kamara – So

• 2025 stats: N/A

Yes, that’s Kamara as in Mikail. The younger Kamara joined Indiana last year and redshirted under the previous eligibility framework. He’s a tad undersized at 5’11” but that wasn’t an issue for Hardy, so.

I don’t necessarily expect Kamara to have a breakout campaign in 2026 but this is Cignetti and Haines, where productive talent can come from anywhere, so I wouldn’t write it off. Again, there’s gonna be an opportunity to carve out a role.

The Freshmen

The same note for the above two goes for Indiana’s freshmen. There’s going to be late game opportunities and tinkering in the early stages of the season, can anyone step up for that?

• Henry Ohlinger – Columbus, Ohio
  • He played both ways, as a linebacker and running back, at Grandview Heights High School and was rated as a 4-star prospect by Rivals and a 3-star by 247Sports. He committed to Indiana over offers from Iowa, Miami, Purdue and Cincinnati, among others.
• Ja’Dyn Williams – Massillon, Ohio
  • He stuffed the stat sheet as a senior at Washington High School, picking up 115 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, 7 sacks and an interception. He committed to Indiana over offers from Ohio State, Duke and Kentucky, among others.
• Jacob Savage – Union, Kentucky
  • He won the Paul Hornung Award, presented to the top high school football player in Kentucky, as a senior and set the career tackles record at Ryle High School with 511. He spent some time on offense as a receiver and running back as well. He was rated as a 3-star prospect by both Rivals and 247Sports, committing to Indiana over offers from Louisville, Minnesota, Michigan State and Purdue, among others.

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