Haines, who was a finalist last year, won the award in a ceremony on Thursday night. He helped Indiana win the national title by leading a unit that ranked second nationally in scoring defense and fourth in total defense.
“This award is so much bigger than me,” Haines said during his acceptance speech. “I’m proud to stand here as a representative of Indiana University. ... I didn’t do this alone. I’m so proud of the team, those players, the way they competed for each other.”
Indiana completed a perfect season with a 16-0 record and won its first national championship. It became the third straight Big Ten team to win the playoff, following Michigan and Ohio State.
Haines caught 35 passes for 700 yards and eight touchdowns in his final season at Piqua before moving on to play at Ball State. At Ball State, he moved to linebacker and, after redshirting as a freshman in 2004, was a four-year letter-winner. He made the All-MAC third team as a fifth-year senior in 2008.
Haines started his coaching career as a defensive line coach at Manchester University in Indiana in 2009. He then spent two seasons at Adrian College before landing at Indiana as a graduate assistant in the 2012 season.
In 2013, Haines worked with linebackers at Ohio State as a grad assistant. In 2014, he took a job as the defensive line and strength and conditioning coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where Cignetti was in his fourth season as head coach.
Haines spent two seasons on Cignetti’s staff before moving to the University of California, Davis as linebackers coach in the 2016 season.
In 2017, Haines reunited with Cignetti, who had taken the head coaching job at Elon University. Haines coached linebackers at Elon for two seasons and then followed Cignetti to James Madison in 2019.
Credit: Cooper Shannon/Indiana Athletics
Credit: Cooper Shannon/Indiana Athletics
Haines was the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for three seasons before earning a promotion to defensive coordinator in 2022. James Madison finished 8-3 that season and then 11-1 the next season. He followed Cignetti to Indiana as defensive coordinator in 2024.
The other finalists were Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, Miami defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman, Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and Texas Tech defensive coordinator Shiel Wood. The five finalists were selected from 64 nominees representing approximately 1,500 assistant coaches.
It was the 30th year the award has been given out. It was created in 1996 to recognize former Arkansas coach Frank Broyles’ history of developing successful assistant coaches.
The selection committee is made up of Hall of Fame coaches, members of the Football Writers Association of America and broadcasters. For the first time, fans had a single collective vote.
Dayton Daily News Staff Writer David Jablonski contributed to this report.
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