CHICK-FIL-A PEACH BOWL: OREGON VS INDIANA

January 7, 2026

Aiden Fisher

Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Indiana Hoosiers

Press Conference

AIDEN FISHER: A text message has been the most I've done. All my attention and my focus is on Oregon and winning this game.

I think the longer you play in a season, the better you play with your teammates, your scheme. You grow more comfortable with all of those things, and I think they've done a great job involving their offense. Their quarterback is playing extremely high level right now. He's gotten more comfortable in the system. That speaks a lot for a guy.

I think their running backs have done a great job. They're all stepping up in different ways, and obviously their receivers. They have a guy I think who's No. 4 who has stepped up and kind of emerged as a star for them. He's going to be a problem for us to keep in front of us. He presents a lot of challenges, and that speaks for all their weapons. They do a great job of getting the ball to everybody, and they're all explosive weapons.

Q. Your defense has traveled pretty much everywhere that you guys have gone, especially the rush defense. What did you guys feel like has made that defense so successful?

AIDEN FISHER: We just played free. We let our D-line play free and our linebackers will fed off them and their safeties and fed off of us. It's all about playing fast. You can't do that when you're thinking too much. You got things, how do I get this done. Is there only one way we can do it. It's not how we operate. For us, you have a job description, but you can get there in a multitude of ways. I think that's what makes us so good, especially against the run.

Just having that confidence you can get the job done doing a bunch of different ways. It's like having the weaponry to do it, and you kind of just pick your different weapon for that down. I think we've done a great job meshing off each other, just being effective, especially in the run.

Q. How do you balance being complacent and the balancing act of focusing on Oregon?

AIDEN FISHER: That's not even in our mind right now. Right now it's all about Oregon. I don't think anybody could tell you where the National Championship is right now. It's all about being in Atlanta, playing in this game, taking advantage of the opportunity.

And I think we've done a great job all year. One thing that we get a lot of slack for is not being able to appreciate the moment. But I think that's what makes us so driven and motivated is we just want to be in the now. I think we're doing a great job with that, and it's all about this game and all about Oregon right now.

Q. (Indiscernible) against the quarterback --

AIDEN FISHER: First, it's going to be hard against a quarterback that's as talented as he is. He's smart. He sees the field extremely well, but we're going to have to switch up a lot of things and present different challenges for them.

He's a great player that is going to cause a lot of problems for us and challenges, but we're excited for it. As a defense, this is where we can take a step and grow a little bit more. It's going to be on all 11 guys to do that, and we're excited for it.

Q. All season long this linebacker has gotten praised for being at the right place at the right time. How much of that is having a good feel to the game?

AIDEN FISHER: Yeah, I think in this defense, you have to have great instincts and great feel for football in general. And I think we have guys that do that from our starting linebackers to the guys that are developing right now.

I think everybody has a great feel for it. Obviously the scheme is unreal and the job that Coach Haines does is second to none. So when you get good football players that are instinctual and have a good feel for the game and combine it with Coach Haines, you get the product that we put on the field.

Like you said, our linebackers have just emerged week in, week out. They've done a great job, Isaiah Jones, Rolijah Hardy, Kaiden Turner, Jeff Huntzinger, they have all just stepped up every single time their number is called. We're going to keep doing that. I'm extremely proud of our room especially, the development, the growth that we've seen this year and just knowing that we have guys that can go in at any time in the game and step up and make plays.

Q. You talk about being in the now. How does it feel to be in the now, in the college football semifinal?

AIDEN FISHER: It feels good. It's an opportunity that I think a lot of people wish they were in. I told the team on, I don't know what day, I think, Sunday, there's four teams left. Everybody in the country wants to be in your shoes. They want to be in your cleats, your pads. They want to be practicing today. So you have to take advantage of that.

You can't have a day where we're feeling good about ourselves and look where we are. There are a lot of guys that aren't here. And if you kind of take it for granted, you'll be right in their shoes if you're not on the high execution, all the little details that go into it. So it has to be a good balance of embracing the moment, but you have to be taking advantage of the opportunity that's placed in front of you.

Q. What about you guys makes you (inaudible)?

AIDEN FISHER: We didn't play well in our first game against them. And I know a lot of people put it out as it's a revenge game for Oregon and things like that, but it's a revenge game for us, too. We didn't play well.

There's a lot of things that were just sloppy and not good on our end. So we're excited to go out there, and we have a lot of things to fix, and my message to the team is just leave no doubt. You want to be the best, you have to play in big games like this, and you have to capitalize on the opportunity that's placed in front of us right now, and I think you do that, you will leave no doubt.

Q. (Inaudible).

AIDEN FISHER: Yeah. We had some MAs all across the field. We had some missed tackles. Some of our angles were a little bit off. And coverage wise, there were a lot of things we could have fit up a lot better. So we're excited to kind of right those wrongs. We're excited to get out there and play our brand of football. And I think if we do that and we are worried about us and go into our preparation, we'll be all right.

Q. (Inaudible)?

AIDEN FISHER: For the team in general, I think we've done a job of growing. And I think we're in a much better place now than we were then, especially scheme wise, player wise. A lot of guys have stepped up to have that confidence going for them now.

Q. (Inaudible)?

AIDEN FISHER: Yeah. That's how he gets the best out of his players. He's speaking the truth when he says that. Doesn't matter if it's me, Isaiah, Rolijah, Jeff, KT, anybody that he's coaching is at the highest level because he's going to coach you if you are the starter.

Like you're playing at an all-American level because that's the standard that we play with in this defense and I think that brings out the best in his players and makes you want to play a little bit harder for a guy like that.