‘I want to attack their weaknesses. I want to weaponize my good players’: Bryant Haines is looking to build an aggressive defense with IU Football

Fast. Physical. Relentless. That’s the motto of the new-look IU Football defense.

Heading into his first season with Indiana, defensive coordinator Bryant Haines has emphasized those three words all offseason when talking about his defense. Even when he’s not saying those words verbatim, his message stays the same.

“I want to attack their weaknesses. I want to weaponize my good players,” Bryant Haines said during fall camp.

Haines has had a lot of success at the FBS level since James Madison made the jump to the Sun Belt ahead of the 2022 season. JMU finished top 25 nationally in points allowed both seasons since making the jump.

Haines runs an aggressive defense that creates chaos at the line of scrimmage. In 2022 his defense finished 14th nationally in total sacks with 38. He followed that up in 2023 by finishing 6th with 44 sacks.

Haines is looking to continue that success in the Big Ten with IU Football.

Working under an offensive-minded head coach in Curt Cignetti, Haines has a lot of control over how the defense is run. Cignetti clearly trusts Haines as he has brought him with him from Elon, to JMU, and now to Indiana while giving him a promotion at each stop.

“I’m very loyal to Coach Cignetti and he’s been loyal to me. Part of me staying with him is the fact that he does believe in me,” Haines said. “When he has a chance to give me a promotion whether it’s I’m going with him from Elon to JMU, he put a co-defensive coordinator title out there for me. I think he believes in me, I think he trusts me. I feel the same way about him.”

Haines first worked under Cignetti as a Defensive Line/Strength and Conditioning coach with Indiana University of Pennsylvania for two years before leaving to coach linebackers at the University of California, Davis. After a year apart, Haines reunited with Cignetti at Elon as a linebackers coach and has since stayed with Cignetti at every stop on the way to Indiana.

RELATED: Curt Cignetti’s first year with IU Football ‘feels like a bit of a question mark’ but one thing is for sure, ‘it’s going to be entertaining’

“He and I are very well aligned in what we believe in philosophically. We’re about tough, physical football teams. We’re about football,” Haines said. “The relationship part of it is important, but football, Xs and Os, is what he and I do. It’s what we do for a living. We bounce ideas off each other and have a great working relationship. I like him away from football, too. He’s a good guy, I’ve known him for a long time and I’m happy to say that.”

Cignetti has relied on Haines and the defensive coaches this offseason as they have built a brand new roster and taught their defensive system. A big part of that has been getting the new guys to buy into the system they have built.

With many former James Madison players coming with Cignetti and Haines, it has helped ease the transition for the coaching staff.

“The first thing I would say is the verbiage. Each time you learn a new system it’s like a new language. So, the guys that I brought him from JMU, they already know the language, they speak it fluently,” Haines said.

“The second thing is the cultural buy-in. What do we want, what do Coach (Pat) Kuntz and I believe in with our defense? We kind of talk to guys like ‘This is how we do it, this is why we do it, and this is why it’s important.‘ It’s a cultural buy-in that they know is key to our guys. I’ll say this, the guys that were here before or the guys who came from other schools, they’ve been receptive to it, they’ve been open to it. There hasn’t been a whole lot of pushback. The guys that are here that were not part of the JMU crew, they know that the JMU guys have had success. They’ve felt it, they’ve done it at a championship level. So, there’s a lot of buy-in and that’s a good thing.”

Many key pieces from Haines’ top-20 JMU defense followed him and Cignetti to Indiana this offseason

© Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

Translating that success from the Sun Belt to the Big Ten level will be the next challenge for Haines.

One thing is clear, Haines does not plan to change the way his defense plays with IU Football. His approach is blitz-heavy and takes all 11 guys to buy in to be successful.

“We believe in manipulating angles, we do certain stunts and things like that. I’m also a big fan of tying in the back end, too,” Haines said. “If I can show a picture to a quarterback that is deceptive, it adds to his clock in terms of identifying what we’re in. I tell the guys all the time, each tenth of a second that we add to his plate is another tenth of a second for Lanell Carr, Mikail Kamara, and James Carpenter to get home. It’s all about full 11 buy-in.”

Haines has a talented defensive line so his ability to give them ample opportunities to rush the passer will be key for IU Football. Kamara had 11.5 sacks in 17 games over the last two seasons for James Madison. Carpenter added 9.5 sacks in 24 games over that stretch. Carr finished the 2023 season with five in his first year with Indiana.

Getting those three guys involved will be critical for Haines’ defense. The identity of his defenses has been the ability to rush the passer and that won’t change now that he’s with IU Football.

The ability to get pressure and disrupt the passer will be the most essential ingredient to the success of the defense.

While the wording might be different at times, Haines’ message has not changed since the first time he spoke publicly as the IU Football defensive coordinator on Under the Hood with Indiana Football.

“We’re gonna be fast, we’re gonna be physical, and we’re gonna be relentless,” Haines said in January. “We’re gonna be accountable to one another. We’re gonna be committed to doing our job.”

SEE ALSO: 2024 IU Football Position Preview: Linebackers

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