Nine Indiana players from Ohio will be on the field Saturday when the Hoosiers meet Ohio State in a national top-5 matchup, and three of them know the Buckeyes from a very personal angle.
Isaiah Jones, Carter Smith and Charlie Becker all come with Ohio State connections that run deeper than the average recruit’s memory bank. Jones is an Ohio native with a Buckeye father.
Smith grew up close enough to Ohio Stadium to make the matchup feel local. Becker was raised in an Ohio State household before his path took him to Indiana.
Jones, the linebacker from London, Ohio, is the son of D.J. Jones, who played tight end at Ohio State and was a starter in 1994 and 1996.
Between those seasons, D.J. Jones went through open heart surgery.
He finished his Buckeyes career with 32 catches for 441 yards and two touchdowns, and he was part of the 1996 Rose Bowl team. That trip to Pasadena was clinched at Indiana, in a scene Ohio State fans still remember for storming the field in Bloomington and tearing down a goalpost.
Even with that background, Isaiah Jones said his father is squarely on Indiana’s side now.
“My dad is like my biggest supporter,” Jones said. “So, he’s all IU.
He’s all in my success and he had his time there and obviously growing up in Ohio, but no, he’s all in. He’s all in on me.
He’s interested in our game plan. Like, he wants nothing but the best for the Hoosiers.”
Smith’s tie to the Buckeyes is just as close to home. The left tackle is from Powell, Ohio, about 20 minutes from Ohio Stadium.
His older brother, Landon, was a walk-on at Ohio State, and Landon was there in 2022 when Carter made his first college start - in Columbus against the Buckeyes. Smith and Indiana finally got one over on Ohio State in 2025 after three straight losses to the program.
For Smith, this one never feels ordinary.
“It always means a little something to me when I get to play the hometown team,” Smith said this week. “This is my fifth year in a row getting to play against them, too. So right now I have a losing record, and I’m really looking to add another positive into that.”
Becker’s story starts in Nashville, Tennessee, but Ohio State was the soundtrack in his house. His father, Dave Becker, played linebacker for the Buckeyes in 1995, and Charlie grew up surrounded by Ohio State gear and Ohio State Saturdays.
“We had Ohio State posters up. You name it, we had it,” Becker told ESPN this week.
“Every Saturday, we’d be sitting down, watching Ohio State play ball, kicking everybody’s butts. That was a dream: to play for them or play against them.”
He ended up on the opposite side. Becker, like Jones and Smith, didn’t receive an Ohio State offer and chose Indiana just hours after his official visit to Bloomington.
“That’s it. I’m done.
This is it. This (Indiana) is where I want to play,” Charlie told his father in 2023.
Since then, the Buckeyes have become less of a family favorite. After Indiana’s 2025 win over Ohio State in the Big Ten title game, Becker went viral for signaling O-S-U with his arms and then adding an obscene gesture before the U.
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