Amare Ferrell and Preston Zachman preach that experience and communication will be key for IU football’s 2026 season. While Ferrell is a returning veteran in defensive coordinator Bryant Haines’ system and Zachman is an incoming transfer, both will use their on-field experience to help lead the Hoosier defense.
Zachman is a transfer from Wisconsin, where he’s spent the last four years playing. His 2025 season was ended short due to injury, but he has two full years of playing experience. Zachman looks to be a vocal leader for the secondary, as he preaches versatility.
“It’s a lot of experience on the back end, and I think that’s a huge thing when you have a lot of game experience for a lot of players, just kinda know how things work in game, but also a lot of guys who can play a lot of different positions… You can do a lot of things, move a lot of us around.”
The versatility and experience of this year’s secondary will define how they perform in games. Ferrell spoke on the importance of communication in media availability on Tuesday.
“I just want to make everybody around me better, make everybody’s job easier, just being able to communicate.”
Ferrell expects the team to communicate well, but knows that it begins with him, as he is the veteran of this secondary. Ferrell is taking it on himself to make everybody else better. Ferrell also spoke out about how his crew will look to avoid miscommunication errors early in the season next year.
“Just over-communicating, you can never get enough communication, and then we won’t have those problems this year. Me and Zachman and those guys, we make sure we do a great job of over-communicating and making sure everybody knows their role.”
Ferrell shouts out how his partner in all of this will be the transfer Safety Zachman, which is something to look out for this following season. Zachman also had a comment about this relationship.
“I think it was pretty easy to as soon as I stepped in, to see the experience he has and the experience I have, makes it easy for us to communicate out there, and always be on the same page, which is the most important thing”
This tandem will work together to make the Hoosiers’ secondary better than it was last season as the Hoosiers look to repeat as National Champions.