Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines has won the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach, the organization announced Thursday night.
Haines was a Broyles Award semifinalist in 2023 and a finalist in 2024. Prior winners chose him as the FootballScoop Defensive Coordinator of the Year in December. The 40-year-old's first season as a sole defensive coordinator came in 2022; he began working for Curt Cignetti as the defensive line coach and strength & conditioning coordinator at IUP in 2014, spent 2016 as the linebackers coach at UC Davis, and returned to Cignetti's staff as the linebackers coach at Elon in 2017.
Haines became the first assistant coach since Joe Brady in 2019 to win a national championship and the Broyles Award in the same season. He's the third straight defensive coordinator, following Notre Dame's Al Golden and Iowa's Phil Parker; offensive coordinators won the Broyles annually from 2017-22. Georgia's Mike Bobo, Miami's Corey Heatherman, Ohio State's Matt Patricia, and Texas Tech's Shiel Wood were also finalists.
Indiana became the first 16-0 college football team since Yale in 1894, and along the way nearly completed a clean sweep of all available coaching awards. Cignetti has won the AP, AFCA, Home Depot, Sporting News, Walter Camp and Big Ten coach of the year awards in back-to-back seasons, and took home the Bobby Dodd, Bear Bryant, and George Munger awards this fall. The only available award Cignetti did not win in 2025 was the Eddie Robinson, which went to Vanderbilt's Clark Lea.
Haines's accolades, from IU:
His defense ranked among the top-10 nationally in a bevy of categories: rushing defense (No. 2; 77.2 ypg), scoring defense (No. 2; 11.7 ppg), turnovers gained (No. 3; 30), tackles for loss per game (No. 3; 8.1), total defense (No. 4; 266.0 ypg), interceptions (No. 6; 19) and third down conversion percentage (No. 8; .301). Indiana didn't allow more than 24 points in a game in 2025 and limited nine of 16 opponents to 10 points or fewer.
The Hoosiers led the nation in points off of turnovers (134) and were the only FBS school with four players to log at least 11.0 tackles for loss on the season. His unit set the program standard with 46.0 sacks and held the opposition under 100-yards rushing in 13 of 16 games. The defense forced a turnover in 14 of 16 games and finished the season with at least one turnover forced in nine straight games.
Linebacker Aidan Fisher and cornerback D'Angelo Ponds were First Team All-Americans, and defensive lineman Stephen Daley, defensive back Louis Moore, and defensive lineman Tyrique Tucker also made various All-America teams. The Hoosiers placed a record seven players on the All-Big Ten team, include four first-teamers.