No. 1 Indiana is keeping defensive coordinator Bryant Haines after he agreed to a new contract that will make him one of the highest-paid assistant coaches in the nation, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the athletic department has not made a formal announcement. Haines made $2.1 million this season, and this deal, the person said, will include a significant pay raise.
Haines has been one of coach Curt Cignetti’s mainstays. He has followed Cignetti from Indiana University-Pennsylvania to Elon and then to James Madison and Indiana.
It’s the second major new deal that school officials have announced in two months. Cignetti signed an eight-year contract extension worth $93 million in October, a deal that could keep the 64-year-old at Indiana for the rest of his career. Cignetti has been named the Big Ten’s coach of the year in each of his two seasons at Indiana and was the 2024 Associated Press Coach of the Year.
The 40-year-old Haines grew up in central Ohio and played college football at Ball State before starting his coaching career at Manchester University, an NAIA school in northeastern Indiana. He also coached at Adrian, a Division III school in Michigan, and was a graduate assistant at Indiana and Ohio State before joining Cignetti’s staff at IUP in 2014.
Haines is the architect of one of the Football Bowl Subdivision’s top defenses, a unit that has excelled in virtually every facet this season.
It has allowed the nation’s fewest first downs (165), second-fewest points per game (10.85) and the third-fewest yards rushing per game (77.6). In addition, Indiana ranks 19th in yards passing average (179.5), sixth in total yards average (257.2), second in tackles for loss (112), third in third-down percentage allowed (28.2%) and tied for fifth in sacks (39) and sixth in takeaways (25).
Four Hoosiers defensive players earned first team all-conference honors.
Indiana already has won a school-record 13 games this season, completed the first perfect regular season in school history and won its first Big Ten championship since 1967 and its first outright conference crown since 1945.
The top-seeded Hoosiers (13-0) open the College Football Playoff against either No. 8 Oklahoma (10-2) or No. 9 Alabama (10-3) on New Year’s Day at the Rose Bowl.
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