Noah Pierre Believes Indiana Football Will Be Different in 2023
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Noah Pierre remembers when Indiana football was different.
He arrived in Bloomington in 2018, often standing on the sidelines and waiting for his moment. The 5-foot-11 Florida native was primarily a special teams gunner during the 2019 and 2020 seasons, two of the most successful years in the history of Indiana football.
He remembers biding his time, putting in the work necessary to become a starter on a defense that powered Indiana to bowl games in back-to-back seasons. He remembers when Indiana wasn't talked about as a Big Ten bottom-feeder, rather ranked as high as No. 7 in the nation.
Now, entering his sixth year as a Hoosier, he's the longest-tenured player on the team, and he plans on using his experience to help Indiana get back to what it was.
"This team will definitely be different than the last two," Pierre said. "I think Coach Allen selecting the one word "tough" was big for us because we definitely need to have that mindset coming into this year."
Pierre and Allen both said at Big Ten Media Days that Indiana will be tougher this year than it was in 2022. But why?
"That shared adversity that we went through all summer. Coach Wellman has really pushed us, probably more than he's ever pushed us, this summer," Pierre said of Aaron Wellman, Indiana's Senior Assistant Athletic Director for Football Performance. "It was some of those workouts, I'm passing out myself because I'm working so hard and I'm being pushed that hard."
And when Allen thinks of tough players, Pierre is one that comes to mind. The Indiana football coach spoke glowingly of the senior defensive back at Big Ten Media Days on Thursday, praising Pierre for his commitment to the team after hardly playing prior to 2021.
"Noah is a special, special young man," Allen said. "Came to Indiana, had to earn his stripes the hard way. Took a few years to play on special teams and probably not play as much as he wanted on defense, but man, he stayed the course. Tremendous perseverance and grit, and [he] was rewarded a couple seasons ago to have that opportunity. He's been a starter ever since."
Once a player Tom Allen didn't put on the field, now Noah Pierre (21) is a guy that the coach never wants to have off of it.
© Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
In the past two seasons, Pierre has appeared in all 24 of Indiana's games, tallying 75 tackles, seven pass deflections, three sacks and an interception. Pierre stepped up when Indiana's top cornerback, Tiawan Mullen, went down with an injury in 2021, and he's also shown the ability to play safety and Indiana's husky position, a safety-linebacker hybrid.
Pierre said on Thursday that the opportunity to be a star for the 2023 Indiana team is gratifying because he knows that his chance was earned, not given. As the veteran leader of the team, he's trying to help younger guys in the Hoosiers' locker room learn from his own experience.
"We got a couple of guys who — like I was — are not as happy as they would like to be when it comes to playing time," Pierre said. "So I just tell them to keep working and you'll see, you'll get the outcome that you want if you just put your head down and keep working and keep believing in what you believe in."
It's all about belief for Pierre. Belief that your work will pay off, even if you feel like it's unappreciated or unnoticed at the time, and belief for the team that games in which they're counted out are winnable. Similar to how he wants younger players in the locker room to believe that their time is coming, he wants them to believe at Indiana that they can beat teams like Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State.
"Being in a leadership role, [I'm] trying to push those [young] guys, making them believe that we can get back to that," Pierre said. "Winning the games that we're supposed to win, and winning the games that the media might not think that we can win. We've done it before, we've beaten these guys in the past, so it's very doable. We just got to get back to believing that we can do it."
Since 2018, when Pierre began his freshman year at IU, the Hoosiers have beaten 10-of-13 teams Big Ten opponents at least once. In 2020, Indiana famously beat Penn State 36-35 in an overtime thriller, while also steamrolling Michigan 38-21 in Bloomington. It was the first year in program history that Indiana defeated Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin in the same season.
Indiana's lone regular season loss during Pierre's sophomore year in 2020 came at No. 3 Ohio State, where the ninth-ranked Hoosiers nearly pulled off an upset, but fell 42-35. Ohio State is the one Big Ten East team that Pierre has never beat, and it's the same team Indiana will meet at "The Rock" on Sept. 2.
Most have already marked that season opener down as a win for the Buckeyes, who are 27.5-point favorites over Indiana. Pierre wants to remind the younger players on the team that IU proving media prognosticators wrong is possible.
"We've already beat a lot of these teams that the media said that we can't beat," Pierre said. "We've already done it, so why can't we do it again? [I] just want to instill that into their mindset, that it's doable. It's not impossible."
After back-to-back disappointing seasons in Bloomington, going 6-18, it's clear Pierre wants to lead this team back to where it was in 2019 and 2020. He wants Indiana to be different, and he believes that in 2023, it will be.
"We've got a lot to prove this year," Pierre said. "We're trying to get Indiana football back on the map."
Related Stories on Indiana Football
- IU TO KEEP QB STARTER A SECRET BEFORE OHIO STATE: Tom Allen said that IU will not reveal who will start between Tayven Jackson and Brendan Sorsby prior to the Sep. 2 game against Ohio State. CLICK HERE
- LUCAS SETS BOLD GOAL: Indiana's All-American return specialist Jaylin Lucas said on Thursday at Big Ten Media Days that he has a major statistical goal for 2023, and that teams like Ohio State should think again about kicking him the ball. CLICK HERE
- WHAT TOM ALLEN SAID AT MEDIA DAYS: Indiana football coach Tom Allen was first at the podium on Thursday, and spoke on how he wants his team to be tougher in 2023-24. CLICK HERE
