‘Ball Guy’ – Passion Fuels IU's Defensive Coordinator
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Bryant Haines is a ball guy. He doesn’t just coach football, he lives it. He doesn’t just go to dinner or take walks or chill out, he plans for the next football opportunity because, as Indiana’s first-year defensive coordinator, there’s always -- always -- an edge to find, a game to help win.
Specifically, in this spread-the-field-till-they-break offensive era, dominating defense starts with pressuring quarterbacks, sacking them, disrupting them.
The ultimate goal is simple -- wreck offenses, win.
Inspiration is fickle. It comes at its own choosing and woe to those who ignore or delay or, worst of all, forget. A defensive play idea that might beat Michigan could disappear amid every day routine.
Ball guys won’t let that happen.
There are always new schemes to devise, new deceptions to conceive, and if ideas arise around, say, Hoosier head coach Curt Cignetti in a meeting, it’s good. If they happen around family or significant others in the midst of non-football gatherings, well, a ball guy has gotta ball, 24/7.
“I’m kind of obsessed with the game,” Haines says with a smile from a Memorial Stadium Team Room podium. “I’m OK with it. My girlfriend, probably not. She probably wants to have normal dinner conversation, but if there’s good two-ledge pressure out there I think up, I’ll want to talk about it. She usually hears me out. She’s a good sport about it.”
Ball guys talk their sport, and sometimes others, to anyone who will listen. They skip idle conversation and topics such as music, fashion, movies, food or, heaven forbid, politics when eureka moments arrive.
Ball guys populate the coaching ranks of all sports. In football, they live for terms such as blitzes, stunts, Cover 2, shotgun or, if you ever saw Peyton Manning play quarterback, “Omaha!”
Obsessed? Perhaps. But one person’s obsession is another’s dedication and if you want to compete against the best, beat the best, and you’d better believe that tops the Hoosiers’ priority list in this new football era, obsession rules.
Cignetti understands. He, too, is a ball guy, although with an offensive perspective. He likes what Haines brings, which is why he’s had him on his staff since 2014 (with a 2016 exception when Haines went to University of California Davis to coach linebackers), first at Indiana University-Pennsylvania, then at Elon, and then at James Madison.
“Bryant is always evolving, always trying to learn and find the edge,” Cignetti says. “He’s like I am offensively. His brain never stops working or thinking about football. I’m sure he goes home and tries to figure out how to get to the quarterback like I go home trying to figure out about something.”
Haines’ defenses thrive on in-the-backfield disruption. Call it a speed-and-blitz approach, an extension of Cignetti’s “fast, physical and relentless” mantra.
James Madison led the nation with 9.1 tackles for loss per game last season. In 2022, it was second at 8.6. The Dukes had 45 sacks last year, 25 more than Indiana. They attack offenses as aggressively as offenses attack them.
“Schematically, it’s evolved quite a bit,” Cignetti says. “It’s about freeing up the guys to get to the quarterback, putting them in the best one-on-ones to get to the quarterback, and still be sound in your coverage.”
James Madison ranked in the top 10 nationally in total defense in each of Haines’ first four seasons, and was in the top 25 nationally in scoring defense the last two seasons. Last year, the Dukes led the nation in rushing defense, holding opponents to 61.5 yards. The previous season, it was second nationally with a 79.5-yard rushing average.
How does Haines do it? For starters, he relies heavily on defensive line coach Pat Kuntz and defensive ends coach Buddha Williams -- “I let them handle a lot of the actual techniques” -- because the team concept applies to the coaching staff as well as players.
“We believe in manipulating angles,” Haines says. “We use certain stunts. I’m a big fan of tying the backend (linebackers and the secondary) into that. If I could show a picture to the quarterback that is deceptive, that is not true, 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 we add to his play gives (defensive linemen) Lanell Carr Jr. or Mikail Kamara or James Carpenter a chance to get home.”
Enquiring minds press for details on his quarterback-pressure success, and Haines obliges -- to a point.
“It’s all about fooling the quarterback. It’s the backend shell. The manipulation of what we do upfront. When we blitz, we blitz with a purpose, we blitz with an authority. There’s usually a design behind the blitz. I believe in layers to blitzes. We don’t just run down main street saying we’ll get to the quarterback. Throw a layer to the blitz. Add a wrap or a loop. It’s layers and angles.”
While everyone on the defense benefits, it’s the big guys up front who set the tone.
“To be a front guy in this defense, there’s no better place to be,” Haines says. “You want to be a front guy in a defense that philosophically believes in what we believe in. It’s really the second-level guys that have to make that picture whole. Those front-line guys have to go eat, and those guys are eating right now.”
Beyond that comes the art of defensive play-calling, of knowing what and when to call. It requires feel as well as knowledge and preparation. Haines uses it all.
“When you get into the season,” he says, “it’s more game plan and game by game. What does this team want to do? What are their players like? What are their weaknesses? Are they struggling at left tackle?
“I incorporate all those things. I want to attack their weaknesses. I want to weaponize my good players. If they have a bad center, James Carpenter is going to be a problem for them. How do I get that done? That’s what it is for the week -- I identify their weaknesses and strengths.
“As far as in-game adjustments, I’ve been in this scheme long enough to understand the holes in it. Even in the playbook, it mentions the weaknesses of this defense. The players are aware of them. If (opponents) punch holes in what I’ve called, I’ll get away from it. We have enough content that I can change calls.”
Haines arrives in Bloomington with Hoosier roots. He was a graduate assistant for IU under then head coach Kevin Wilson in 2012. Before that, he was an All-Mid-American Conference linebacker at Ball State. He also was a graduate assistant at Ohio State in 2013 before Cignetti hired him as a defensive line coach at IUP.
Their first meeting remains ball-guy memorable.
“I went to his house for the interview,” Haines says, “he opened the door, pulled me into the foyer and we talked ball for an hour and 25 minutes. There was maybe one typical interview question. After that, it was ball. I’m like that. I enjoy that. It was a fun interview. That’s when I recognized that this is a ball coach, a ball guy. That’s who we are.”
The assistant coaching journey usually means working for multiple head coaches, but Haines has basically stayed with Cignetti. The same is also true of offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan. Loyalty matters, with the real-world understanding that job excellence is non-negotiable.
Cignetti has never had a losing record as a head coach, and it reflects the quality and consistency of his staff as much as his own ability.
“I'm very loyal to Coach Cignetti and he's been loyal to me,” Haines says. “Part of me staying with him is the fact that he believes in me. He trusts me.
“He and I are very well aligned in what we believe in philosophically. We're about tough, physical teams. We're about football. The relationship part of it is important, but football, the Xs and Os, is what he and I do. We bounce ideas off each other and have a great working relationship.”
That’s true beyond football, Haines adds.
“He's a good guy. I've known him for a long time and I'm happy to say that.”
For Haines, Cignetti and much of the coaching staff, success hasn’t come at a Power 4 Conference level before, which doesn’t mean it won’t now, starting with the Aug. 31 season opener against FIU at Memorial Stadium. They radiate confidence in what they teach and how it will translate to the Big Ten.
They believe, and their players do, too.
“Coach Haines says freedom equals discipline,” says linebacker Jailin Walker, one of 13 James Madison transfers who became Hoosiers because of their faith in the coaches and the system. “He lets us fly around and make plays.”
Would you expect anything less from a ball guy?