During the past two years, Curt Cignetti has engineered one of the most remarkable and unimaginable turnarounds in American sports history.
Under Cignetti’s watch, an Indiana football program that was synonymous with losing has morphed into a national powerhouse, with an undefeated record and a No. 1 ranking this season. It happened quickly, too, with Cignetti’s first Hoosiers team going 11-2 in 2024 and making the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff just one year after going 3-9 and capping off a three-year stretch during which the program managed a measly record of 9-27.
On Friday, Jan. 9, Indiana will put its unblemished mark to the test when it takes on Oregon in the Peach Bowl. With a win, the Hoosiers will make the national championship game, a destination that was inconceivable for the program as recently as 15 months ago.
While Cignetti has understandably and justifiably earned a significant praise for Indiana’s rapid rise, he hasn’t done so alone.
Indiana’s 25-2 record in two seasons under Cignetti has been made possible by a number of factors, including the Hoosiers’ top two assistants – offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan and defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, both of whom have been coaching with Cignetti at every stop since 2017, when he was the head coach at FCS Elon.
As Indiana heads into its College Football Playoff semifinal matchup with Oregon, here’s a closer look at the team’s coordinators:
Who is Mike Shanahan?
Shanahan is in his second season as Indiana’s offensive coordinator and has been coaching with Cignetti since 2016 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a Division II school in Indiana, Pennsylvania, about 55 miles east of Pittsburgh.
He made an immediate impact in his first season with the Hoosiers. An Indiana team that averaged just 22.2 points per game the previous season nearly doubled its output in 2024, averaging 41.3 points per game behind a transfer-heavy offense. That season, his offense set program records for touchdowns scored (70), points scored (537) and most 40-point games in a single season (8).
This year, the Hoosiers have been even better, averaging 41.6 points per game, the third-best mark in the FBS. That output helped quarterback Fernando Mendoza win the Heisman Trophy, making him Indiana’s first-ever recipient of the award.
The 36-year-old Shanahan’s accomplishments in his first two seasons in Bloomington earned him a new three-year contract with the school that runs through the 2028 season. Under that deal, Shanahan will make $2.4 million in the first year, $2.5 million in the second year and $2.6 million in the third year.
A former all-Big East wide receiver at Pitt, Shanahan has been coaching wide receivers for Cignetti since that 2016 season at IUP. He was the wide receivers coach for two seasons at Elon (2017-18) and served in the role at James Madison from 2019-23. He added offensive coordinator duties in 2021, and the Dukes had one of the top 25 scoring offenses in the FBS in each of his final two seasons there despite having just made the jump up from the FCS level.
Here’s a stop-by-stop look at Shanahan’s coaching career:
2014: Pitt, volunteer assistant
2015: Pitt, graduate assistant
2016: Indiana University of Pennsylvania, wide receivers coach
2017-18: Elon, wide receivers coach
2019-20: James Madison, wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator
2021-23: James Madison, offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator
2024-present: Indiana, offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach
While he shares a name with the former NFL head coach, Shanahan is not related to Mike Shanahan, who won two Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos in the late 1990s, or his son Kyle, the ninth-year San Francisco 49ers head coach.
Who is Bryant Haines?
Like Shanahan, Haines has been with Cignetti for much of the past decade.
The 40-year-old Haines was Elon’s linebackers coach from 2017-18 before following Cignetti to James Madison, where he was the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for three seasons before being the Dukes’ lone defensive coordinator from 2022-23.
James Madison finished among the top 25 scoring defenses in each of Haines’ final two seasons there, with his final unit allowing just 19.5 points per game.
That success has carried over to Indiana. After inheriting a defense that allowed 29.9 points per game in 2023, Haines’ first group with the Hoosiers finished sixth in the FBS in scoring defense, at 15.6 points allowed per game. That unit has been even stingier this season, giving up only 10.3 points per game, the second-best mark in the FBS.
Several of the players from Haines’ defense have earned All-American honors during the past two seasons, a group that includes linebacker Aiden Fisher, defensive lineman Mikail Kamara and defensive back D’Angelo Ponds. All three of those players began their college careers under Haines and Cignetti at James Madison.
This season, Haines was named as one of five finalists for the Broyles Award, given annually to the best assistant coach in college football. The winner will be announced in February. He was a semifinalist for the honor last year.
Back in December, after the end of the 2025 regular season, Haines signed a new three-year deal with Indiana through the 2025 season. Under that contract, he will make $3 million in the first year, $3.1 million in the second year and $3.2 million in the third year.
Haines was a four-year starter at linebacker for Ball State, where he was an All-Mid-American Conference honoree.
Here’s a stop-by-stop look at Haines’ coaching career:
2009: Manchester College, defensive line coach
2010-11: Adrian College, strength & conditioning coach and defensive line coach
2012: Indiana, graduate assistant
2013: Ohio State, graduate assistant
2014-15: Indiana University of Pennsylvania, strength & conditioning coach and defensive line coach
2016: UC Davis, linebackers coach
2017-18: Elon, linebackers coach
2019-21: James Madison, co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach
2022-23: James Madison, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach
2024-present: Indiana, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach