John Hauser (born February 27, 1980) is an American football coach and former football player. He is currently the defensive coordinator and safeties coach coach at Ohio University ^[1] Before joining the staff at Ohio, he was the co- defensive coordinator at Miami (OH). ^[2]

Early Life and Education

Hauser was born in Columbus, Ohio and is an alumnus of Bishop Hartley High School where he played football and won a state championship in baseball. After one year at Ball State University, he attended Wittenberg University in Ohio where he played college football as a safety from 1999 to 2002. ^[3] He was a Division III All-American in 2002 and received his bachelor's degree in business management. ^[4] He earned his master's degree from Northern Illinois University in adult education in 2007. ^[5]

Coaching career

Hauser's first coaching position was as an assistant at his alma mater Wittenberg for one season in 2003. He was a graduate assistant at Northern Illinois before being promoted to defensive backs coach in 2006. ^[6] He left NIU for his first defensive coordinator position at Wayne State. In his three seasons with the Warriors he led a defense that led NCAA Division II in sacks, coached three NFL free-agents signees, and his defense helped Wayne State reach the national championship game for the first time in 2011. ^[7]

After brief stops at Illinois and The Citadel he came back to the state of Ohio and the MAC where he began a long stint at Miami (OH) under Chuck Martin with the first two years as the defensive backs coach before being promoted to co-defensive coordinator in 2016. ^{[8] [4]} In 2016 and 2017 his defenses finished third in the MAC in scoring defense both seasons and had another good showing by placing fourth in 2018. ^{[9] [10]} In 2019 they were better. They finished second in the MAC in scoring and third in total defense while leading Miami to a MAC championship that year. ^{[11] [12] [13]} In 2020 and 2021 Miami finished third in the MAC in total defense both years. ^{[14] [15]}

Hauser joined Tim Albin's staff at Ohio in 2022, first as the safeties coach, before also taking over the duties as defensive passing game coordinator a year later. ^[16] Prior to the 2024 season he was promoted to defensive coordinator. ^{[17] [18]}

References

External links

• Northern Illinois Huskies coaching bio
• Miami RedHawks coaching bio
• Ohio Bobcats coaching bio