ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Heather Dinich

There is no shortage of new coordinators in the ACC, and Maryland is no exception. In early January, the Terps hired former UMass head coach Don Brown as their defensive coordinator. He's still trying to find a house, and his wife hasn't joined him yet, but Brown is starting to get comfortable in the Gossett football building.

Brown spent the past five seasons as head coach at UMass, where the Minutemen finished among the top 20 in total defense in three of his five seasons. They were also first nationally in scoring defense in 2005 and fifth in 2006.

Brown, who will oversee the cornerbacks at Maryland, has served as a head coach at three universities and been a defensive coordinator at four schools. He posted a 43-19 record (.694) at UMass, the best five-year span in program history. Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen hasn't had another former head coach on his staff since 2005, with former coordinators Charlie Taaffe and Gary Blackney.

I got a chance to check in with Brown on Wednesday. Here are the highlights of our interview:

What attracted you to this job?

Don Brown: When I talked with coach about the direction, the vision he had for the Maryland defense moving forward, I thought it was a good fit. From a philosophical, defensive perspective, we just seemed to hit it off in that respect. He wanted it aggressive, more pressure-related and wanted to see us go in that direction. Obviously that fits me in terms of what we have and what I've done in the past, and what my background is from a defensive perspective. I thought that was a really good fit. When I looked at the facilities, I've been in New England my whole career, the last nine years as a head coach at the I-AA level, this gave me a chance to get into the ACC and compete at the highest level. That was also an attraction.

What are you going to miss about being a head coach, and what won't you miss?

DB: My passion is defense, so obviously when your time gets divided a little bit from all the head coaching duties, some of those duties, I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed, from an administrative standpoint. I'm much more on point from a defensive perspective, and involvement in the recruiting process of the defensive guys. Some of those administrative tasks I won't miss. Dealing with the whole team in terms of the players on a day-to-day basis, that part I'll miss, but that's pretty much it.

What is your defensive philosophy?

DB: From a 4-3 structure, but uniquely not just 4-3 team. We'll have some sub-packages, but it is a philosophy of pressure, a lot of zone pressure and man-free pressure. My thought process is get the ball out of the quarterback's hands as quick as possible and do a good job in the running game. Without question, I'm a high-pressure guy.

Somebody was telling me you're not afraid to get creative and use some quirky formations.

DB: Yep. We'll do whatever it takes to get the offense off the field. That's basically the standpoint. A big part of that is evaluation their personnel and trying to mach our personnel to their personnel.

How far along are you in your acclimation period, in terms of getting to know the players and watching film from last year?

DB: I have watched some tape. Obviously there's a lot of guys missing that have moved on from a graduation standpoint, so we're going to be young. I've been through three winter workouts, and got a chance to evaluate the guys a little bit athletically. I'm still in the early stages, but looking forward to getting to know the guys better athletically and what their strengths are. Obviously, schematically, spring practice is on the horizon, so we're trying to do our best staff-wise to get on the same page so we're ready to go when spring practice starts.

Do you have to teach them a lot of new terminology? Are things going to be a lot different?

DB: With a new structure comes new terminology, there's no question about it. I'm hoping to make it as seamless as possible, but sometimes with transition comes change. With change, sometimes that's exciting. That's the way I'm looking at it. Hopefully I can do a good job of getting the guys to get on board, and get excited about playing this style.