Mario Landino

Mario Landino's production has outrun his recruiting billing from the day he arrived. A lightly recruited three-star out of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, he committed to James Madison before flipping to Indiana when Curt Cignetti took the job, and he showed up with no fanfare. He earned snaps as a true freshman in 2024 with nine tackles and a forced fumble, then grew into a rotational interior rusher on a national title team. In 2025 he posted five sacks, 30 pressures and 20 run stops across 16 games with 21 tackles and two fumble recoveries, both of which came in the Peach Bowl rout of Oregon. His loudest afternoon came in a top-10 showdown with Illinois, and that kind of disruption on a College Football Playoff defense is hard to ignore from a player recruited with so little hype. He wins with quickness and leverage that offset a lighter frame, and he cleans up tackles dependably with only two misses charged. The frame is the limiter. At 275 pounds he is light to anchor against power on early downs, he gives ground when reduced inside and asked to two-gap, and his run defense sits a step behind his pass rush. He wins on quickness more than a developed counter plan, and his pressure dipped against UCLA when guards got hands into his chest. He projects as a sub-package interior rusher who has to add sand to his base for early-down work.