Hearts broke around Memorial Stadium on Saturday when the cart came out for the sixth-year defensive back and team captain Noah Pierre.
Pierre has not had an easy climb to the top of the ladder. The Miami, Florida native was recruited minimally out of high school before deciding on Indiana. From that moment on, it was a lot of hard work and determination.
It wasn’t until halfway through his fourth season at Indiana that Pierre started a game.
“Obviously, he wanted to play sooner,” head coach Tom Allen said earlier this season. “He and I talked many times about that, and he was frustrated at times."
Pierre never let that frustration get in the way of getting what he wanted. He finished that 2021 season with 26 tackles and one interception. In the 2022 season, he had 39 tackles. In the infamous snowy, double-overtime Michigan State game Pierre deflected a potential game-winning touchdown, letting Indiana live to see another play and ultimately win.
Pierre was one of two defensive starters returning to the team for the 2023 season. In a world where the transfer portal exists it is rare for someone to stick with the team for six years. It would not be easy to go through the great times, like the iconic 2020 season, and the rough times, only winning two to four times the following seasons, respectively. However, the perseverance paid off when he was chosen as team captain for this season.
Allen announced on Monday that Pierre would be missing “an extended period of time.” The nature of his injury has not been disclosed. With only five weeks left in the season, that is unwelcome news for Pierre and the struggling Indiana football team.
With his 22 tackles and one sack so far this season, Pierre’s presence will be missed on the field. However, it is not just on the field that Pierre has an impact.
“Losing a guy like Noah for an extended period of time is tough, a tough blow without question,” Allen said. “But he's going to continue to be a great leader for us and continue to get himself back as soon as possible.”
Being a captain for the team means being a leader for everyone, but his leadership means a little more to the younger guys on the team such as Amare Ferrell.
Ferrell is a four-star recruit, true freshman, and defensive back like Pierre from Florida. After Pierre went down on Saturday, Louis Moore was ejected for a targeting call, and Philip Dunnam was also ruled out due to injury. The secondary was looking thin. Ferrell was called up.
“The first play went by real fast, but after that everything just slowed down,” Ferrell said.
Ferrell joined the team in the spring where he got a head start on the 2023 season and got a little extra time to learn from the team's veterans. That extra time may have helped him out when he was called into Saturday’s game.
“I’ve been working hard since I got here in the spring, learning from guys like Noah Pierre that have been here for a while and that knows the defense in and out,” Ferrell said. “I feel like just learning from him and asking him questions just made me comfortable in that situation.”
Pierre has been helping Ferrell on the field but the guidance has gone beyond that as well.
“Noah’s been very important,” Ferrell said. “I can go to him and ask him for anything during the game, in the film room, outside the film room, he's just been very important to me since he got here.”
There is no doubt that when Ferrell took the field he was thinking of all the advice, corrections, answers and motivation that was given to him by his predecessor.
“I’m just going to play for him because he’s helped me a lot and I just want to come in and take care of what he’s done,” Ferrell said.
Ferrell finished the game with seven tackles, and with Pierre out indefinitely and the return of Dunnam questionable, he should expect to tack on a few more in the last couple of weeks.
