Close friends face off as Indiana and Miami defensive coordinators meet for CFP title
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MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — It’s not uncommon for Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines and Miami defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman to jump on their phones during game weeks, see how the other is doing and come up with ideas on how to stop their next opponent.
They’re close friends. It’s normal for them.
Such talks aren’t happening this week — for obvious reasons. Haines and Hetherman will be on opposite sides of the College Football Playoff national championship game on Monday night, with the undefeated Hoosiers (15-0, No. 1 CFP) taking on the Hurricanes (13-2, No. 10 CFP).
“It’s probably the same for both of us. I think we’re both competitors. Both of us, it’s all about being 1-0,” Hetherman said. “For us, there’s nothing that changes. It’s, ‘block out the distractions, block out the noise and focus on what you can control.’ As long as we can control the controllables and focus on going 1-0 and the normal process we have every week, that’s what it’s all about for us. It’s no different than any other game, the way we look at it.”
Except, well, it is different.
There are ties that bind all over this game: Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza went to the same high school as Miami coach Mario Cristobal and Hurricanes offensive line coach Alex Mirabal did, Mendoza’s mother played tennis at Miami and the Mendoza family home is less than a mile from the Hurricanes’ campus.
The list doesn’t stop there: Hetherman — in his first year at Miami — worked for Indiana coach Curt Cignetti at James Madison from 2019 through 2021. Cignetti was head coach and Hetherman and Haines shared the defensive coordinator duties.
“I loved him. I didn’t want him to leave,” Cignetti said of Hetherman. “We had a great relationship. I really thought a lot of him. … Corey is a great football coach. He’s done a great job here.”
That he has. So has Haines.
Indiana might have the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback in Mendoza and Miami might have a high-octane offense fueled by Carson Beck and Malachi Toney, but it’s the defenses that have ensured that the Hoosiers and Hurricanes made it to the title game at Hard Rock Stadium.
Indiana is No. 2 nationally in scoring defense this season at 11.1 per game; Miami is No. 5 at 14.0 per game. Indiana has 28 takeaways, Miami 25, both teams ranked among the top 10 nationally this season in that department. With numbers like those, it’s easy to see why both Haines and Hetherman are finalists for the Broyles Award — presented annually to college football’s top assistant coach.
“Coach Hetherman is an awesome, awesome football coach, and I love him as a human being, too,” Haines said. “But it’s pretty easy to separate work with the relationship externally. So, not hard to separate it, but yeah, he’s a good football coach.”
And they’re close, too — Haines was in Hetherman’s wedding. They even share notes on fatherhood; Hetherman said he picks Haines’ brain about things his daughter is going through, knowing that Haines has been through the same things.
“We’ve stayed very close because I think we are very similar in our beliefs in football and life and everything else that we handle,” Hetherman said. “We’ll remain close. Obviously this week it’s one of those things. He’s on the other sideline. There’s been times this year, last year I coached against close friends. You just don’t pick up the phone that week. You block out the noise and focus on what you can control. It’s all about going 1-0 this week.”
Miami missed the CFP last year in part because its defense fell apart at the end of the season. Cristobal targeted Hetherman quickly as a potential hire entering the offseason, believing he would be the right person to take Miami to the next level.
Hetherman believed in what Cristobal was selling.
“He has great answers,” Cristobal said. “He knows the system inside and out, he knows the strengths, he knows what errors are going to be attacked and to be able to communicate that and get that done with the football players, absolute difference maker for us.”
So, it turns out, Cristobal was right. Cignetti and Haines probably suspected he would be.
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