The Indiana University football team had a historic 2025 season, going 16-0 and winning a national championship.

Emmaus High School graduate Mario Landino had a big hand in all of the team’s success in his second season in Bloomington.

Landino is a defensive end on an IU defense that ranked second in the entire Big 10 conference in total defense and scoring defense, allowing just 266 yards per game and 11.7 points per game.

The Macungie native has had a roller coaster of the last month.

“This past month has been incredible,” said Landino. “There have been a lot of ups and downs. One week you’re hanging out with all of your guys and playing the sport that you love, the following week we had all of our upperclassmen graduating and leaving the program. We have a strong bond and brotherhood here and it showed on the field with how well we played together.”

Landino believes that this year’s Indiana squad was close not only on the field, but off it as well, especially when it comes to faith and leadership.

“There were just a lot of great people in the locker room,” Landino said. “The biggest thing is the bond between the team. Hanging out outside of football. Everyone just has such a close bond. We believe in God and go to church together. It’s a mixture of a lot of really good football players, but also really good people.”

Landino took a leap his sophomore season from his first year.

He appeared in all 16 games this season, making 11 starts. Landino finished with 32 total tackles, six tackles for loss and five sacks, along with three passes defended and two fumble recoveries, both coming in the national semifinal victory over Oregon.

“Maturity has been the biggest thing for me improving as a player on the field,” said Landino. “It’s a brand new world for me coming from a small school like Emmaus, to playing Division I football for the national champions. Every day I’m just learning a lot, taking it all in, talking to a lot of different people and listening.”

During his time at Emmaus under head coach Harold Fairclough, Landino was named the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference South Defensive Player of the Year as a senior, named First-Team All-EPC South on both offense and defense as a junior and senior and logged 97 tackles with 20.0 tackles for loss and 3.0 sacks in his final season as a Hornet.

“Coach Fairclough and the whole staff did a good job running a college-like program,” Landino said. “We really utilized the resources and facilities that we had to help prepare us for the next steps in our journeys. There were very similar things we did at Emmaus to here at Indiana and it wasn’t a huge jump for me in terms of the football side. Emmaus instilled winning and being a leader.”

So, what’s next now for Landino, who becomes an upperclassman in the fall as his team will try to defend their national championship.

“There wasn’t much down time after the playoff run,” said Landino. “The first week of spring semester classes was championship week. The following week we got back on Tuesday and had a week and a half to two weeks off of football. But when we get back on the field, one of the bigger things I want to take on is a leadership role. This year I want to step up more vocally. Every year I can get better at the craft and understanding the game. Just continue to learn and have fun playing.”