Aiden Fisher did not quite have to take out a map to pinpoint Indiana when his college coach who had drummed up so much success shifted his base of operations from Virginia.

But it wasn’t as if he previously thought he would be spending any quality time in the Hoosier state, either, since he was not only from Viriginia, but was comfortably embedded with a successful football program in Virginia.

Too successful. Coach Curt Cignetti uplifted James Madison to new heights, turning the once-upon-a-time overlooked program into a ranked program. The Dukes, not to be confused with not-so-far-away Duke, finished 11-2 last year. That made Cignetti a hot commodity in the college football coaching market.

Cignetti departed Harrisonburg for Bloomington, Indiana and the next thing you knew, a whole bunch of the players who had followed his commands in Virginia transferred to IU. Fisher was one of them.

Fisher, a junior linebacker, from Fredericksburg, Virginia, found himself in a seller’s market, too. Under current NCAA policies, players can transfer to other schools at will, without the penalty of having to sit out a year without playing.

Fisher, a 6-foot-1, 233-pound defender, scouted around to see where his talents fit the best and where he might feel comfortable. In the end, he decided the coach he worked with at James Madison was someone he wanted to stay with.

Although Fisher said he did look at national champion Michigan and perennial power Ohio State, Cignetti sold him on Indiana, which may play in the same Big Ten Conference, but does not have the same pedigree. IU is coming off a 3-9 season and a habit of recording losing seasons.

When he was choosing where to continue his college football, Fisher met with Cignetti as a fresh recruit, wondering why he should select Indiana over the other touted places.

“The first thing he said to me was, ‘We’re going to change the culture,’” Fisher said.

That phrase has one meaning in Bloomington. No sugar-coating things, but it means changing from being portrayed as a perennial losing program to evolving into a perennial winning program.

Cignetti’s – and Fisher’s – IU debut is scheduled for Aug. 31 at Memorial Stadium versus Florida International, the first game of the 2024 season. One game will not change a long-ingrained culture (nor will one season), but the proverb about a journey of 1,000 miles beginning with a single step seems to apply here.

Last year, Fisher became a regular college starter, doing so in 11 of James Madison’s 13 games, and was chosen a third-team All-Star for the Sun Belt Conference. That followed a freshman year when he appeared in 10 games, but was not a starter.

Fisher said after his first year he resolved “You won’t be able to take me out.” And that became reality once he started. “I’m just a put-your-head-down-and-work kind of guy.”

Certainly, with a team that is turning over a high percentage of its roster, Fisher can aspire to starting and may well be needed to make a large contribution for IU right away.

Fisher was one of many who made the switch from James Madison to the Hoosiers and he thinks it made sense following Cignetti as a known quantity who they have lived and played under.

When Cignetti made the jump, the left-behind players had to think of their own futures and Fisher said it was an attitude of “Where do we go from here?” The difference maker for many may well have been already being winners under Cignetti. “We wanted to play for someone who wants to win as much as we do.”

He — and probably all of the new IU guys – now have that Cignetti culture saying on their brains.

“That’s the first thing we’re going to do,” Fisher said, “is flip this culture.”

Fisher transferred to IU in January, not long after Cignetti was hired, so he has been around the campus and in Indiana for months getting ready for his on-field switch. He understands what the past record has been like for the Hoosiers, but said when he encounters new people and talks football with them, he basically hears positive vibes.

“There’s a lot of buzz,” Fisher said. “There’s a lot of excitement.”

The goal, after week No. 1, and season No. 1, is to keep the buzz going.