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In each issue of Bucknuts The Magazine, we have in-depth features on Ohio State football players, coaches and prospects. We also have analysis pieces on
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This week's excerpt is from our April 2005 issue. This article is on new football assistant coach Paul Haynes and his return to Columbus:
Headline: Coming Home
By Steve Helwagen
As a high school football player at Columbus DeSales, Paul Haynes enjoyed one
of his greatest memories winning a state championship on the field at Ohio
Stadium.
That great event happened 20 years ago this fall. It is coincidental that
Haynes will be back in the Horseshoe this fall. The former Kent State standout
was hired by OSU head coach Jim Tressel in late February to fill the opening
created by the departure of defensive backs coach Mel Tucker to the NFL’s
Cleveland Browns.
“It still hasn’t sunk in,” admitted the 35-year-old Haynes, who spent
the last two seasons as an assistant for John L. Smith at Michigan State. “I
have my parents and my family and my high school coaches from DeSales and
everybody else calling me. I’m starting to see how big it is.”
Haynes’ homecoming to Columbus is quite a story. He is truly a self-made
man, graduating from DeSales in 1987 and enrolling at Kent State as a walk-on
only to become a standout for the Golden Flashes. As a freshman safety, he led
the team in interceptions with three. As a sophomore he was the team leader in
tackles with 116. After sitting out the 1989 season with a knee injury, he was a
starter in 1990 and '91 and wound up his career with 440 tackles, the seventh
highest total in Kent State history and the fifth-best effort in NCAA annals by
a defensive back. While at Kent State, Haynes played for three head coaches --
Glen Mason, Dick Crum and Pete Cordelli.
He then worked his way up through the coaching ranks including stops at
Bowling Green (graduate assistant, 1994), Ferris State (1995-96), Northern Iowa
(1997-98), Kent State (1999-2000), the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars (quality
control coach, 2001), Louisville (2002) and the last two seasons as the
defensive backs coach at MSU. Haynes was the assistant head coach during his
stay at Kent State.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to come home,” Haynes said. “It was
a tough decision. My family loved it here. We had a great staff that came up
from Louisville. John L. Smith is an excellent head coach and a great guy to
work for, but again, it was an opportunity to come home and to have a chance to
work at a place like Ohio State is like a dream come true for me.”
Haynes said he enjoyed watching the Buckeyes as he was growing up in
Columbus.
“All of those guys I looked up to – Pepper Johnson and Chris Spielman and
(Art) Schlichter, all those guys,” he said. “I’ve always been a Buckeye
fan and followed the Buckeyes. Even during my coaching career, you always look
in the paper and see what they were doing and how the program was going.”
The DeSales coaching “mafia” helped put the word out that Haynes might be
interested in the OSU opening. It took Tressel just nine days to fill the job
and announce Haynes’ hiring.
“It happened pretty quickly,” Haynes admitted. “(OSU assistant and
DeSales grad) Luke (Fickell) helped me out a lot. It was kind of a two-way
street with a bunch of high school coaches that I’ve known, some guys who were
at DeSales when I was a player. These guys have been following me for a long
time and they know the goal I had to come back to Ohio State. When the
opportunity arose, I think they blew up Coach Tressel’s phone and helped me
out a lot.
“And I think it always helps when a guy on staff brings your name up to the
head guy because I’m sure he wants to feel comfortable with them knowing a
guy. Coach Tressel said he’s not the type of guy who likes to shop around
quite a bit.”
Tressel talked about why Haynes was a good fit for his staff at the present
time.
“Paul knows Ohio and also has recruited Georgia and Florida, so that made
him a very attractive candidate,” Tressel said. “Everyone we talked to had
nothing but great things to say about him, and he is very impressive one-on-one.
All of our coaches felt like he was going to fit in very nicely on our staff.
And I know he is excited about the opportunity to come home.”
The transition should be smooth for Haynes, his wife Danita and their three
children – Jordyn (10), Tarron (6) and Kennedy Rose (10 months). Much of their
family is still in central Ohio.
“Everybody is still in Columbus,” Haynes said. “I have two older
sisters who moved away from New York, but both of them graduated from Ohio
State. These last couple of years have been tough for them. They’ve had Ohio
State headbands and Michigan State T-shirts on. They were so happy when this
came about. Everybody can be a full-blooded Buckeye now.”
Haynes discussed having the chance to spend three years working with Smith,
known in coaching circles as an innovator.
“It’s been awesome,” he said. “Everything you see is exactly how he
is. He is a fun loving, energetic guy. He lets you coach. He treats you well and
treats you fair. He’s a family guy and a team guy. The players love him. I
have learned a lot this last three years and I have learned a lot for my future
in coaching.”
And he talked about the chance he has to go to work for a coach like Tressel,
who boasts five national championships.
“I’ve had a lot of respect for Coach Tressel for a long time, ever since
the time I played against his teams at Youngstown in 1988,” Haynes said. “He’s
a well known name in Ohio. I’m eager to get under his wing and pick his brain
and learn a bunch from him. He’s been very successful at Youngstown and at
Ohio State. He is a very disciplined coach and a very focused coach.”
Tucker was one of OSU’s strongest recruiters, working well in Cleveland,
Georgia and also in Florida, at times. Haynes knows that will be a big part of
his responsibilities as well.
“Everywhere I’ve been – ever since my first job at Ferris State – I
have spent time recruiting in Ohio,” he said. “I have been in every part of
Ohio in my years of coaching. Being from Columbus, I’ve had a lot of focus in
Columbus. But I have also been in Atlanta and all parts of Florida – North
Florida, South Florida, Chicago, Michigan, D.C., Maryland. I’ve been around in
a lot of different areas. Hopefully, wherever Coach Tressel sees a need for me
to be, I’ll get in there and dig some guys out.”
Haynes inherits a veteran group of defensive backs. Senior Nate Salley and
junior Donte Whitner return at the safety positions with junior Ashton Youboty
at corner and junior Tyler Everett at the nickel back spot. The new coach will
get his first chance to work this group during spring practice, which starts
March 31.
“I’m very excited about this group,” he said. “They are very talented
and it is a veteran group, which helps. Mel did a great job with those guys.
When you first get there, everybody just tries to feel each other out. The
faster we can do that and more we’ve been around each other to build
relationships, then the more you can do on the football aspect of it.
“There is a phase where we have to get a feel for each other. I’m kind of
looking forward to it. From everything I’ve heard from everybody, they’re
great kids. The good thing about having a new coach is that everybody gets a
clean slate. All of the guys who maybe did not get an opportunity before will
get that chance. I’m very excited to get started.”
Haynes may also get a chance to work with sophomore Ted Ginn Jr., who scored
three touchdowns against the Spartans in OSU’s 32-19 win at East Lansing.
There have been rumblings that Ginn would rep at corner as well as receiver
beginning this spring.
“He’s an exciting football player,” Haynes said. “He is definitely a
difference maker. I don’t know if I will have a chance to work with him or
not. I think everybody is trying to lobby for Teddy.
“But the best thing about Ted Ginn is how humble he is. I think that makes
him an even better player, maybe, than he is. He goes to work and gets out on
the field and doesn’t say a lot or do a bunch of showboating. He just gets the
job done. His dad has done a great job with him to keep him humble. He’s an
exciting player, so if I get a chance to work with him that would definitely be
a plus.”
Haynes already had one chance to coach in Ohio Stadium. MSU visited in 2003,
losing 33-23 to the Buckeyes.
“That was actually the first time I had been down on the field since 1985
when I was there for the state championship,” Haynes said. “Tony Pusateri,
who was my head coach at DeSales, came by the stadium during our walkthrough. I
scored a touchdown in that game, so of course I went back to that same spot and
remembered that. It was exciting.
“It is very exciting now to look out and have that Scarlet and Gray on and
have those people cheering for you.”