Aaron Casey ready for new role, increased leadership for Indiana football in 2023

2022 was a year to forget for Indiana football and its defense. It saw them allow 33.9 points per game, which put them 120th of 131 teams in points allowed. If head coach Tom Allen and his team are going to get back to being bowl eligible, the defense is going to have to lead the way like it did in 2019 and 2020, the last two times Indiana played in a bowl game.

Indiana’s defense in 2023 is going to look very different than it did a year ago, as nine of the team’s top ten leading tacklers from a season ago are no longer on the roster. Sixth year linebacker Aaron Casey is the only one of the ten to return in 2o23, after leading the team in both tackles (86) and tackles for loss (10.5) in 2o22.

Casey has already been named to the Butkus Award preseason watch list, but taking that next step after a great 2022 will come from his work off the field. Each year, Allen and his players choose one word to define their upcoming season and Casey keeps his word in mind every step of the way.

Indiana football linebacker Aaron Casey named to Butkus Award preseason watch list

“My one word for this season is edge, I’m taking that into everything I do,” Casey said on Thursday. “So playing with an edge, playing with a purpose and attacking everything with a different mindset.

With so many transfers joining the Indiana football program, Casey’s role on defense has expanded on the field, but even more so off the field. Because of the new faces in the locker room, Casey recognizes that his role on the team has grown significantly, which has led him to grow with it.

“For me, it’s just being more vocal is something I really had to work on over the offseason,” Casey said. “Doing that and just encouraging my teammates, holding them accountable for different things is something I had to work on. Just growing in that aspect.”

Casey’s success on the field last season contributed a lot to his confidence and his ability to act as a leader, but last season that leadership role was filled by linebacker Cam Jones. Indiana football co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Chad Wilt spoke about losing Cam Jones but also Casey’s new role.

“We had Cam Jones last year, even after Cam [Jones] got hurt he was still the leader. Well guess what, Cam’s gone,” Wilt said during his press conference Thursday. “… [Casey] doesn’t have to be Cam Jones, all he has to do is be the best version of Aaron Casey and the best version of Aaron Casey is an awesome human being.”

Wilt recognizes that Casey is not Cam Jones, but he believes in Casey both as a player and as a person, which is what has allowed him to step into a leadership role on the Hoosiers’ defense. He shared that Casey had texted his wife on her birthday, and he has been doing the little things that made Cam Jones such a special leader for Indiana football.

Wilt credits Casey’s growing confidence off the field as a leader from his success on the field last season.

“Aaron had a phenomenal season last year. He saw his growth and the confidence based on what he did last year,” Wilt said of where Casey’s confidence has come from. “But then the other things he is doing behind closed doors, the unseen stuff, the dirty hard work in the dark that nobody sees.”

Casey continues to do the little things both on and off the field to insure another successful season from him and the relationships and camaraderie he has built with his teammates is only going to help him and Indiana football succeed.

Linebacker Jacob Mangum-Farrar was asked how he and his teammates have gelled off the field since his arrival in Bloomington and he shared that him and Casey had gone bowling recently.

“I’m not going to lie he won both times but I gave him a run for his money the second time,” Casey said with a big smile when asked who won between him and Mangum-Farrar at bowling.

With plenty of question marks surrounding this new-look Indiana football roster, Aaron Casey does not appear to be one of them, as he seems to be flourishing in his new leadership role because of who he is.

Casey is just trying to be himself and that’s what makes him such a special leader in this locker room.

“He’s doing a phenomenal job being Aaron Casey,” Wilt said. “Because Aaron Casey is a phenomenal person.”