With ‘blue bloods knocking at the door’, Curt Cignetti made sure IU football retained its most important piece of the puzzle this offseason — Bryant Haines

While most coaches make it a priority to retain key players in the offseason, Curt Cignetti made sure to do that and more, by being extremely proactive in conversations with IU football defensive coordinator Bryant Haines.

After an 11-2 season and College Football Playoff appearance, the expectation was Indiana would struggle to retain every member of its coaching staff. While it did lose quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri to the UCLA offensive coordinator job, the other nine on-field assistants all received raises and new contracts. That included Haines — but the work wasn’t done quite yet. After multiple defensive coordinator roles became open, Haines quickly became a top target.

Among them was Big Ten foe Penn State following the departure of former IU football head coach Tom Allen. Notre Dame and Ohio State also had openings.

“The blue bloods were knocking at the door and we didn’t want to lose him and we were proactive,” Cignetti said. “I really appreciate President Whitten and Scott Dolson for the tremendous support that they’ve provided since I’ve become the head coach that enables us to keep a key person like Bryant Haines.”

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Haines led Indiana to program records in scoring (15.6 ppg) and lowest total offensive output (3,332). IU’s defense also led the nation in rush defense (80.2 ypg) and second in total yards (256.3).

Indiana’s defense ranked 98th in scoring defense and 85th in total defense in 2023.

Haines joined Cignetti with the IU football program last offseason after spending four years on his staff at James Madison. In just one year, he emerged as one of the top coordinators around the nation and was a Broyles Award Finalist — the honor given to the top assistant in the country.

“Well, you know, when you’re successful and you win and you’re a coordinator and your side of the ball excels — I think we’re number one in the country against the run, number two in total defense, we’re number one in Big Ten in other categories — he’s done a great job for me,” Cignetti said.”I think he just completed his third year as coordinator. He’s been with me 11 or 12 years — people are going to come after him.”

Haines, who worked on the IU staff back in 2012, has been instrumental in the turnaround in such a short period of time.

“I think I’ll look back and just remember how much they’ve changed things. And, again, this is coming from a guy that was here before,” Haines said after IU’s loss to Notre Dame in the CFP. “I was in those locker rooms. I was at Indiana. I know what it meant to be an Indiana football player in 2012. It’s a different era now, and these guys changed it forever.”

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