Gophers promote Haynes to co-defensive coordinator

Friday, the University of Minnesota football team announced that cornerbacks coach Paul Haynes was promoted to co-defensive coordinator.

Haynes joined the Gophers in 2020 and helped contribute to the strong defense, which ranked third in the nation in total defense (278.8 yards per game), sixth in scoring defense (17.31 points per game) and eighth nationally in run defense (97.5 yards per game).

“Paul is a tremendous coach and is respected universally throughout college football,” Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck said in a statement. “He is one of the brightest defensive minds in the game and played a huge role in why our defense was able to execute at an extremely high level last season. But more importantly, Paul is an elite teacher of young men who cares about their academic, athletic, social and spiritual development. He also is a tremendous husband and father, and he makes our team and our coaching staff better every day on and off the field. I’m excited for him to have an elevated role in leading our program.”

Previously, Haynes was the head coach at Kent State from 2013 through 2017, with other past coaching stops at Arkansas, Ohio State, Michigan State, Louisville, Northern Iowa, Ferris State and Bowling Green.

During his coaching career, Haynes has worked with four first-team All-Americans and 16 NFL Draft picks, including two first-round selections.