Indiana football: Senior linebacker Aaron Casey named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week

Indiana football senior linebacker Aaron Casey has been named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week due to his huge performance in the Hoosiers’ 20-14 win vs Wisconsin over the weekend.

In the Indiana football win, Casey totaled 9 tackles with 7 of those tackles coming in the fourth quarter of the game while also adding 4 tackles for a loss, 2 sacks, and 1 forced fumble.

Casey also received the game ball from head coach Tom Allen due to his stellar performance.

“A couple weeks he didn’t play very well. He took ownership for that. He came, we talked,” Allen said about Casey. “He’s just a special, special person. He’s the leader of our defense, the leader of our team. Not up for giving many speeches. He doesn’t need to. He just needs to play like that, let his play doing the talking. He leads the defense when he’s on the field.”

“You have to have your best players step up and play really well in games like this, a game you have know you have to win, against a really good team,” Allen said about Casey’s performance. “Proud of him and proud of all the guys around him.”

Below is the full release.

After helping the Indiana football program to a 20-14 victory over Wisconsin during Week 10, redshirt senior Aaron Casey was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week, announced the conference office on Monday (Nov. 6).

Casey piled up nine tackles with seven coming in the fourth quarter to hold Wisconsin scoreless in the final frame and seal the victory. On the Badger’s final drive of the game – UW trailing by six points – Casey made three stops with two solo tackles for loss, which included a solo sack with 36 seconds remaining and the Badgers out of timeouts.

In all, he piled up 4.0 tackles for loss, the most by a Hoosier since 2016 and a total that is tied for No. 9 on the FBS single game charts in 2023. Of those four tackles behind the line of scrimmage, he had two solo sacks. All four TFLs came in the second half, with three in the fourth quarter. The TFL total ranks tied for third-most in a Big Ten game this season.

In 2023, Casey leads the Power 5 with 16 tackles for loss or no gain, per Pro Football Focus. He sits atop the Big Ten and No. 7 nationally with 13.5 tackles for loss and is No. 4 on the conference charts with 5.5 sacks.

The Douglasville, Georgia, native also forced a fumble in the fourth quarter, which led to IU’s first recovered fumble of the season. His efforts helped IU to consecutive wins over Wisconsin for the first time since 2001-02 and the first home win over the Badgers since 2002 (five games).

He is the first Hoosier to earn B1G Defensive Player of the Week since Micah McFadden’s nine tackle, 2.0 sack effort in 2020 at No. 18 Wisconsin.

See Also: Indiana Football In Review Ep. 9: What went right? What went wrong? And more takeaways

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