Together on and off the field

Senior Devin Schaffer has eleven tackles in three football games. He's played in 36 games in his career at IU, and started in 25. He's arguably one of the two top starting linebackers on the Hoosier football team.\nAnd he snores. Loud.\n"He snores like a chainsaw," said senior Justin Smith, IU starting linebacker and Schaffer's roommate. "He's definitely the loudest snorer on the team. It's terrible. He'll snore so loud he'll wake himself up. He drools a lot too when he snores."\nBut don't think that Smith is innocent of bad habits.\n"He's messy," Schaffer said. "He always leaves his clothes lying around, and he'll leave his ice bags from the training room on the counter and it will melt everywhere. He's not very tidy."\nBut aside from the snoring and the messiness, put these roommates next to each other on the football field, and the combination is dangerous.\nSmith, a Butkus award candidate, leads the team with 31 tackles on the season, 18 in the Big Ten opening loss against Ohio State. Together the two are responsible for 42 tackles.\nWith the exception of the Buckeye game, when one takes the field, the other is usually right next to him. Schaffer did not start against Ohio State because of an ankle injury, and saw only minimal playing time throughout the game. \nIt was Smith who took over Schaffer's usual role of calling out the signals.\n"I felt (his absence) a little bit, because I'm used to him being next to me," Smith said. "It was a little different not seeing him there next to me every time, because we feed off of each other a lot. But its something we fight through, and he'll be back ready to go against Wisconsin."\nThe duo's friendship dates back to their high shcool football days when Smith and Schaffer played against each other at rival high schools in Indianapolis. Smith wrestled and ran track in addition to playing cornerback for Warren Central at the same time Schaffer was a running back and basketball player for Indianapolis Cathedral.\nWhen the two were seniors in high school, they both were selected to play in the Indiana All-Star football game. Both committed to IU, and already having known each other for two years, decided to live together in McNutt.\n"When we met my sophomore year of high school, we had no idea we would be playing together," Schaffer said. "But I respected him a lot, and when we came here, I got to know him really well. We've seen each other grow."\nStarting out as redshirts in 1997, Smith and Schaffer each found playing time in their first season as Hoosiers, with Smith earning a starting position and Schaffer playing in 11 games with three starts.\nBy 2000, the two established themselves as two of the more prominent defensive leaders. \n"Devin does a good job of leading the team," senior co-captain Kemp Rasmussen said. "I'm the defensive captain, but I'm not really a vocal guy, and he does a good job of stepping up and being the more vocal leader of the group of us."\nSmith is the more quiet of the two, but what he lacks in vocals he makes up for on the field. Against the Buckeyes, Smith was responsible for a goal line stand that held OSU to a field goal. The Buckeyes drove down to the one-yard line, but three times in a row, Smith came up with the stop.\n"It was off the hook," Schaffer, watching from the sidelines, said. "It was an opportunity for him to show what he was capable of, and it was the perfect time for him to shine."\nAs close teammates on the field, they are self-described brothers off the field. The two lived together three of their five years at IU, including this year. Smith has an outside interest in acting, which Schaffer describes him as a natural. And both have nothing but love for each other when describing athletic ability.\nSo where do the two go when this season and year is over?\n"We'll always stay in touch and we'll always hang out," Schaffer said. "I'll miss him."\nSmith agreed.\n"We both know what each other is thinking," Smith said. "We have the same tastes in everything. We like to have fun, and we never fight. We're family"