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.
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
FILE - The College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy is shown before the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal game between Texas and Ohio State, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson, File)
A Indiana fans waits for an autograph during media day ahead of the College Football Playoff national championship game between Miami and Indiana, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Miami. The game will be played on Monday. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
NUUK, Greenland (AP) — Thousands of Greenlanders carefully marched across snow and ice to take a stand against U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday. They held signs of protest, waved their national flag and chanted “Greenland is not for sale” in support of their own self-governance in the face of increasing threats of an American takeover.
Just as they finished their trek from the small downtown of Greenland's capital city Nuuk to the U.S. Consulate, the news broke: Trump, from his home in Florida, announced he will charge a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight European countries over their opposition to U.S. control of Greenland.
“I thought this day couldn't get any worse but it just did,” Malik Dollerup-Scheibel said after The Associated Press told him about Trump's announcement. “It just shows he has no remorse for any kind of human being now.”
Trump has long said he thinks the U.S. should own the strategically located and mineral-rich island, which is a self-governing territory of Greenland. Trump intensified his calls a day after the military operation to oust former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.
Dollerup-Scheibel, a 21-year-old Greenlander, and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen were among what others described as the island's biggest protest, drawing nearly a quarter of Nuuk's population. Others held rallies and solidarity marches across the Danish realm, including in Copenhagen, as well as in the capital of the Inuit-governed territory of Nunavut in Canada's far north.
“This is important for the whole world,” Danish protester Elise Riechie said as she held Danish and Greenlandic flags in Copenhagen. “There are many small countries. None of them are for sale.”
In Nuuk, Greenlanders of all ages listened to traditional songs as they walked to the consulate. Marie Pedersen, a 47-year-old Greenlander, said it was important to bring her children to the rally "to show them that they’re allowed to speak up.”
“We want to keep our own country and our own culture, and our family safe," she said.
Her 9-year-old daughter, Alaska, crafted her own “Greenland is not for sale” sign. The girl said her teachers have addressed the controversy and taught them about NATO at school.
“They tell us how to stand up if you’re being bullied by another country or something,” she said.
Meanwhile, Tom Olsen, a police officer in Nuuk, said Saturday's protest was the biggest he's ever seen there.
“I hope it can show him that we stand together in Europe,” he said. "We are not going down without a fight.”
Tillie Martinussen, a former member of Greenland's parliament, said she hopes the Trump administration will “abandon this crazy idea.”
“They started out as sort of touting themselves as our friends and allies, that they wanted to make Greenland better for us than the Danes would," she said as others chanted in the background. "And now they're just plain out threatening us.”
She added that the push to preserve NATO and Greenland’s autonomy were more important than facing tariffs, though she added that she was not dismissing the potential economic impact.
“This is a fight for freedom,” she said. “It’s for NATO, it’s for everything the Western Hemisphere has been fighting for since World War II.”
But when the AP asked Louise Lennert Olsen what she would say to Trump, the 40-year-old Greenlandic nurse instead said she wanted to give a message to the American people.
“I would really like them to support our wish to be Greenland as we are now,” she said as she marched through Nuuk. “I hope they will stand against their own president. Because I can’t believe they just stand and watch and do nothing."
Niemann reported from Copenhagen, Denmark, and Dazio from Berlin. Associated Press journalists Kwiyeon Ha and Evgeniy Maloletka in Nuuk, Greenland, contributed to this report.
People protest against Trump's policy towards Greenland in front of US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A woman pulls her children on a sled during a protest against Trump's policy towards Greenland in front of the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A girl shouts during protest against Trump's policy towards Greenland in front of the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen speaks during a protest against Trump's policy towards Greenland in front of the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A girl shouts during protest against Trump's policy towards Greenland in front of US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - A crowd walks to the US consulate to protest against Trump's policy towards Greenland in Nuuk, Greenland, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People march during a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Iqaluit residents, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and Siku Rojas hold a Greenlandic banner during a solidarity march through Nunavut's capital, on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Dustin Patar/The Canadian Press via AP)
People protest against Trump's policy towards Greenland in front of US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
