Brian Haines joined head coach Shawn Clark's staff as the running backs coach/special teams coordinator with the Mountaineers in January 2020.

During the 2024 regular season, Ahmani Marshall ended the year with five straight 100-yard rushing games, as he took on a bigger role with four other running backs impacted by injuries.
 
On special teams, Michael Hughes finished as App State’s career leader in field goal percentage (83.3, 35-for-42) while also going 225-for-225 on extra points. The 2024 team had several big special teams plays, including Marshall’s blocked punt for a safety early in App State’s first post-Hurricane Helene game in Boone and Michael Hetzel’s return of a blocked punt for a touchdown in a home win against James Madison.

In 2023, Haines had at least one special teams player receive All-America recognition for the third straight year, as Hughes and multi-unit coverage stalwart Jackson Greene were both honored. Hughes went 19 of 22 on field goals (including 11 straight makes to closes the season) and scored 111 points.

In the running game, Nate Noel was ranking among the national rushing leaders before he suffered a mid-October injury, but Kanye Roberts led App State in rushing five times over an eight-game stretch before another back, Anderson Castle, rushed for a career-high 119 yards in a Cure Bowl victory that capped a nine-win season.

Named a 2021 candidate for the Broyles Award that goes to the nation’s top assistant, Haines followed that by coaching an All-America kick returner in Milan Tucker and helping running back Camerun Peoples receive a Reese's Senior Bowl invitation during the 2022 season. The Mountaineers had six games with a 100-yard rusher despite dealing with several injuries at that position.
 
In 2021, Haines coached a running back group that helped App State produce a 1,000-yard rusher for the 10th straight season and directed a special teams group that included kicker Chandler Staton, who received first-team All-America recognition, and Jalen Virgil, who had two kickoff returns for touchdowns.

App State ranked 16th nationally in overall special teams based on the Fremeau Efficiency Index (FEI) that combines kickoff return, kickoff, punt return, punt and field goal efficiency into one overall rating.

App State’s two leading backs (Noel, Peoples) both rushed for more than 900 yards while ranking No. 2 and No. 3 in rushing yards per game in the Sun Belt, and that came a year after the Mountaineers were the only FBS team in the country to have four running backs rush for at least 500 yards.
 
Virgil added a 100-yard kickoff return at Miami and a 97-yard kickoff return against Georgia Southern to the 100-yard return for a touchdown at Georgia Southern in 2020, and Staton was named PFN’s national kicker of the year after going 20 of 21 on field goals while making all 57 of his extra points. He set five App State career records, two App State single season records and two consecutive makes records during the 2021 season, when the Mountaineers ranked in the top 25 nationally by allowing just 4.1 yards per punt return.
 
App State’s top three backs entering the 2020 season combined to miss 11 games, but it got 500-plus rushing seasons from sophomore Peoples (league-leading 1,224 yards with 12 TDs despite making just five starts, all to end the season), junior Daetrich Harrington (595 yards with seven TDs before suffering a season-ending injury in the sixth game), Noel as a true freshman (510 yards, including 327 over the final four games) and Marcus Williams Jr. (503 yards, with three 100-yard games in just eight appearances).

Peoples set a school and NCAA bowl record with 317 rushing yards to go with five touchdown runs (tying a school and NCAA bowl record) in the 56-28 bowl win against North Texas. Williams added 101 rushing yards, making them the 100-yard tandem with the second-most combined rushing yards (418) in a bowl game behind only a Baylor tandem with 460 in 2015.
 
App State finished with a whopping 500 rushing yards in that game.
 
On special teams in 2020, punter Xavier Subotsch led the Sun Belt with a net average of 40.3. App State allowed only 2.2 yards per punt return (No. 1 Sun Belt, No. 11 nationally), 3.3 punt return yards per game (No. 2 Sun Belt, No. 23 nationally) and 17.3 yards per kickoff return (No. 2 Sun Belt, No. 14 nationally).
 
Haines came to Boone after spending 12 of his previous 13 years on staff at Ohio University, where he helped lead the Bobcats to 91 victories, two Mid-American Conference East Division titles, nine bowl appearances and the first five bowl titles in school history.
  
A native of Williamstown, W. Va., Haines had served as a special teams coordinator for eight seasons before joining App State’s staff and as a recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach for each of the last 10 seasons before joining App State’s staff. He also had stints at West Virginia and his alma mater, Marietta College, early in his coaching career.
  
Ohio did not have a losing season in the 10 years after Haines joined Frank Solich's staff as a full-time assistant in 2010. In that decade, Haines helped the Bobcats win eight or more games on seven occasions, including a 10-4 record in 2011 when they won the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl for the school's first bowl victory.
 
Other Ohio bowl wins during Haines' tenure included the 2012 Independence Bowl against ULM, the 2017 Bahamas Bowl against UAB, the 2018 Frisco Bowl against San Diego State and the 2020 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl against Nevada.
 
The Bobcat offense set numerous school records in recent seasons and ranked among the best in the FBS and MAC in a variety of statistical categories. The 2019 offense was 20th in the country in scoring average, while it ranked 12th in 2018 and ninth in 2017. Ohio's rushing offense was 20th in 2019, ninth in 2018 and 16th in 2017.
 
Three of Haines' Ohio tight ends went on to play in the NFL: Jordan Thompson, Keith Heitzman and Troy Mangen.
 
Under Haines' watch, Ohio's special teams unit consistently ranked as one of the best in both the FBS and the MAC in terms of kickoff and punt returns and kickoff and punt defense. He coached the two highest-scoring players in program history in Louie Zervos (437 points, 2016-19) and Matt Weller (409 points, 2009-12) as well as three of the top four kickers in terms of field goals made in Weller (79; 2009-12), Zervos (73; 2016-19) and Josiah Yazdani (31; 2013-15). Zervos' school-record 29 field goals in 2016 set an NCAA record for field goals by a freshman.
 
Haines also developed four-year starting punter Michael Farkas into one of the best in school history.
 
The Bobcats' kickoff return defense was top 15 in the country each of the last three years, including No. 2 nationally in 2019. It was also No. 8 nationally in 2015, No. 7 in 2013 and No. 9 in 2012, his first year directing the special teams.
 
In 2010, Haines returned to Athens in a full-time capacity after spending 2009 as a graduate assistant at West Virginia, supervising the Mountaineers' slot receivers and running backs. He helped coach the team's leading rusher (All-Big East first team tailback Noel Devine) and leading receiver (Jock Sanders) as the team made an appearance in the Gator Bowl.
 
From 2010-11, he coached the Bobcat tight ends and served as recruiting coordinator before adding special teams duties the next year.
 
Haines served as a graduate assistant for the Bobcats' offense during the 2007 and 2008 seasons. He assisted the offensive staff and worked directly with the wide receivers and offensive line.
 
Haines served as an assistant coach at Marietta College, his alma mater, for three seasons from 2004-06. He coached the wide receivers for two seasons and the secondary for one. He also served as the strength and conditioning coordinator for two years.
 
Haines, a standout wide receiver for Marietta from 2000-03, graduated in 2004 and went on to earn master's degrees from Marietta in 2007 and Ohio in 2008.

Haines was born Aug. 30, 1982. He and his wife, Mary, have two daughters: Blair and Quinn.

HAINES AT A GLANCE
Coaching Experience
2004-06: Marietta College (Assistant coach)
2007-08: Ohio (Graduate assistant, Offense)
2009: West Virginia (Graduate assistant, Offense)
2010-11: Ohio (Tight ends/Recruiting coordinator)
2012-19: Ohio (Tight ends/Special teams coordinator/Recruiting coordinator)
2020-24: App State (Running backs/Special teams coordinator)
 
Playing Experience
2000-03: Marietta College (WR)

Alma Mater: Marietta College, 2004
Hometown: Williamstown, W.Va.
Birthdate: Aug. 30, 1982
Wife: Mary (Yanity)
Daughters: Blair, Quinn
Twitter: @BrianHainesb