New Terps Coordinator Turns Up the Pressure

Brown Institutes a Newfound Aggressiveness on Defense

The drive from the Gossett Team House, headquarters of the Maryland football team, to the Residence Inn off Cherry Hill Road in Silver Spring is less than six miles. Factoring in traffic, the trip should take roughly 15 minutes.

But for a man who had spent his entire life in New England and was only two days into his first-ever division I-A job, there was no such thing as a simple journey. Trying to navigate the Beltway last winter, Don Brown was lost and frustrated and concerned -- a familiar trio of sensations.

"My GPS didn't work down here for a couple of days, and I was in bad shape when I got here," said Brown, Maryland's first-year defensive coordinator. "You know, when you're 53 years old and you come out of your comfort zone, it's challenging. I'd be lying to you if I said it wasn't a challenge. Shoot, just to get back to the hotel, I didn't even know how to do that."

Those who know Brown describe a man of deeply rooted conviction, someone who knows what he wants and has the charisma to compel others to follow. He can be aggressive and blunt and relentless, a personification of the defensive schemes he employs.

Most importantly, they say, Brown always is willing to adapt and grow. That is why they believe he can revive Maryland's moribund defense into a unit feared by every offensive coordinator in the ACC.

Formerly the head coach at Massachusetts, Brown brought with him an attitude and approach far removed from the ones under which Maryland's defense operated a season ago. In 2008, Maryland finished in the bottom third of the ACC in scoring, rushing, passing and total defense while utilizing a 3-4 base scheme built on zone coverages and bending boundaries.

"Don't get me wrong, I love" former defensive coordinator Chris Cosh, senior safety Terrell Skinner said. "He was my man and all, but last year we had a mentality that, you know, we had to plan for the offense. We had to figure out what the offense was going to do. We had to hold our ground so the offense wouldn't score points. This year it's not like that. The offense has got to be ready for us."

Brown's defenses were not always so proactive. Entering a mid-October matchup against Connecticut in 1998, Massachusetts was 4-1 despite of a defense that put little pressure on opposing quarterbacks, did not compile many sacks and was mediocre at best against the run.

Then in his first year as the Minutemen's defensive coordinator, Brown always had been a disciple of the traditional 4-3 base scheme, but it wasn't as effective as it needed to be. The Huskies underlined that point by racking up 549 yards of offense in a 44-41 win.

Shortly after the game, the Massachusetts coaching staff convened to discuss its flailing defense.

"We got together and said, 'Let's get more of a pressure package,' " said Mark Whipple, Massachusetts's head coach at the time. " 'Let's set our kids loose.' "

Brown introduced a scheme popularized by legendary NFL coach Buddy Ryan in which the defensive line was shifted considerably to the side opposite the tight end and both outside linebackers lined up on the same side of the formation, two or three yards off the line of scrimmage. The objective was to rush as many as eight players on each snap. Brown called his version "The Bear."