Aaron Casey Caps Off His Legendary IU Career With A Shrine Bowl Appearance
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Written By Evan Alvarez
Aaron Casey fully embodies and represents what it means to be a Hoosier. He is one of the greatest players to play in the Tom Allen era and as that era comes to a close, so too does Casey’s college football career.
Casey leaves Bloomington with a legacy that most aspiring college football players would dream of accomplishing: All-Big Ten selections in 2022, first and second-team All-Big Ten selections in 2023, leading the Big Ten in tackles for loss in 2023, becoming the first IU linebacker since 2016 to record 100+ tackles in a season, becoming the first Hoosier ever to earn multiple Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week awards in a career while also being the 12th IU linebacker ever to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors, all while leading the Hoosiers as a team captain.
Casey was truly great and grew an immense amount over his six years at IU. Coming into Bloomington as a 3-star recruit, Casey is now hoping to translate his college success to playing on Sundays in the NFL. He took the first step towards that dream becoming a reality yesterday through participating in the annual East West Shrine Bowl, an all-star game featuring the best senior college football players in the country.
When asked how it felt to be selected to play, he told Hoosier Huddle, “Being picked to play in the Shrine game was a huge honor…was very excited to get exposure to NFL coaches and scouts while also playing against the best talent in the country.”
Casey took this opportunity and ran with it, describing a typical day as, “6:15 wake up, 8:00 practice, lunch, then special teams and O/D meetings, 2-5 personal interviews with NFL teams, dinner, meetings with NFLPA, and then the rest of the night is free.”
The NFL teams Casey interviewed with will instantly see his relentless work ethic, passion, and knowledge of the game both through talking with him and watching his film. They didn’t have to wait very long to see him in live game action, as Casey started at linebacker and made a tackle on the very first play the East Team was on defense. Casey’s side didn’t pull out the win, but he finished the game with a strong showing, totaling four tackles (three solo) and one tackle for loss (unofficial stats compiled by Hoosier Huddle staff).
Now that the Shrine Game has passed, Casey has his eyes focused on the draft. When asked about his plans, he told us, “after the game I’m going back to train at X3 Performance (a state of the art facility that has helped NFL players like Darnell Mooney, Khari Blasingame, and Drew Forbes prepare for pro days and the combine) in Fort Myers until the combine.”
Aaron will no doubt enjoy sunny Fort Myers as he prepares for the draft. At the same time, whichever NFL team is lucky enough to have him on their roster will no doubt be ecstatic in their decision.