John Hauser (gridiron football)

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 Before joining the staff at Ohio, he was the co-defensive coordinator at Miami (OH).

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. He was a Division III All-American in 2002 and received his bachelor's degree in business management. He earned his master's degree from Northern Illinois University in adult education in 2007.

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. 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.

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. 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. 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. In 2020 and 2021 Miami finished third in the MAC in total defense both years.

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. Prior to the 2024 season he was promoted to defensive coordinator.