Indiana football has two great coordinators. Appreciate it while you can

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

When Indiana football inked both Bryant Haines and Mike Shanahan to contract extensions this past December, it knew it was only buying time. That was before the National Championship and Haines winning the 2025 Broyles Award, presented to the nation’s top assistant coach.

Like the Heisman trophy and National Championship, it was Indiana’s first time winning the Broyles award as a program. Retaining both Haines and Shanahan will give Indiana a shot at winning it in back-to-back years, but retaining them beyond that may prove difficult.

Of the last five Broyles award winners, Haines is just one of two still at the school where they won the award. Some have left for the NFL, like Al Golden, while others have taken jobs at different schools, like Garrett Riley moving from TCU to Clemson and eventually to Missouri.

With the way Haines’ and Shanahan’s units have been consistently productive at Indiana, it’s only a matter of time before the pair of coordinators start getting offers that are too good to pass up either around college football or the NFL.

Under Shanahan, Indiana’s offense has been top three in points per game nationally in both of the last two seasons. Haines’ defense, meanwhile, has been top five in yards per game allowed in each of those seasons.

Indiana fans should know the risks involved with replacing assistant coaches. The inability to find adequate replacements for Kalen DeBoer and Kane Wommack, now both at Alabama, was effectively the end of the Tom Allen era.

Thankfully, Scott Dolson and Cignetti appear to be on the same page as to the importance of assistants. Haines and Shanahan, as of their December 2025 extensions, are among the top 10 highest-paid coordinators in the country.

Cignetti has also, albeit in a much smaller sample size, done a good job at developing and replacing coaches.

When Tino Sunseri departed for UCLA, Cignetti brought in Chandler Whitmer as quarterbacks coach and promptly produced the first Heisman and No. 1 overall pick in program history. Whitmer rode that success back into the NFL and Cignetti was able to promptly reinstall Sunseri, who helped Indiana to an 11-2 season in 2024.

Of course, there was some luck involved in being able to re-sign Sunseri after 2025, but the move showed that Cignetti maintains good relationships with his network of coaches, which should be a positive when the time comes to make bigger hires.

Regardless of the future, Indiana has a pair of top five coordinators heading into 2026. They seem destined to go on to bigger jobs, but for now, they are in Bloomington. As with the 2024 and 2025 season, our job as fans is to appreciate it while we can.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos