Indiana Football Loses Key Assistant Coach to SEC After Winning National Championship

MIAMI — Less than eight hours after winning the College Football Playoff National Championship, Indiana football lost an important piece to its staff.

Derek Owings, the Hoosiers' director of athletic performance, is leaving the program for the University of Tennessee, according to multiple outlets. CBS Sports first reported the news.

The 32-year-old Owings is viewed as one of the nation's best strength and conditioning coaches. He received a new contract in May of 2025 that paid over $900,000 and made him one of college football's highest-paid strength coaches.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti hired Owings to his staff in 2020 at James Madison University, and he completed his sixth season working under Cignetti in Monday night's national championship victory.

Owings earned FootballScoop.com's strength and conditioning coach of the year award in 2025.

Cignetti often credited Owings for the Hoosiers' on-field success, and Owings earned specific praise for developing receiver Omar Cooper Jr.'s core strength after the redshirt junior's acrobatic, physics-defying, game-winning catch against Penn State during the regular season.

Indiana's players often touted Owings' weight room process throughout the season. Strength and conditioning, Cignetti said in 2024, has become very scientific — and Owings is on the cutting edge. He delivered "great results," said Cignetti, who added he didn't mess with Owings.

"I know the players really like what we're doing down there," Cignetti said in February of 2024. "He changes their bodies. He'll cut a lot of body fat, still add lean muscle mass, quicker, stronger, faster, more explosive. I've seen the results. You look at the GPS numbers sort of here last year, relative to maybe where we were the year before. He'll make 'em faster."

Cignetti called Owings a "winning edge," long before the Hoosiers proved it on the field.

"I think he's a big part of what we do," Cignetti said. "That's why I do everything I can to keep him on the roster, pay him as well as I can, because he makes a difference. Fast and physical. It starts down in that weight room with the development, the body development, of each and every guy."

Indiana reached contract extensions with offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan and defensive coordinator Bryant Haines before starting the College Football Playoff, and Cignetti said he hoped to give extensions to the rest of the staff after the season.

Now, the Hoosiers will have to turn their attention elsewhere and find a replacement for Owings, who served Cignetti well for six seasons.