COLLEGE PARK — When the Maryland football team took the field at Byrd Stadium Wednesday morning for the first day of spring practice, players on the defensive side took calls from a coach who was new, but familiar.
Newly-promoted defensive coordinator Keith Dudzinski (duhd-ZIN-skee), who was inside linebackers coach last season and enters his fifth year as a member of head coach Randy Edsall's staff, led his first practice in his new post.
"You wake up knowing there's a little bit more to worry about every single day, that's for sure," Dudzinski said following practice. "The great thing is that we've got a great staff. We've got good coaches. [I've] got the support from the head coach. And the bottom line, we're in there, meeting every day, and we're going to be on the same page, and we're all excited to coach our guys."
Dudzinski took over the defensive coaching responsibilities Feb. 19 after Edsall announced that Brian Stewart, who held the position for the past three seasons, was leaving the program. A statement released by the Maryland athletic department said it was a mutual split.
One of the biggest changes Maryland will go through this offseason is moving from a 3-4 base defense to a 4-3 — something Dudzinski said will be a better fit against Big Ten Conference opponents for the Terps defense, which was ranked 97th in the nation last year.
"You've got to be able to stop the run each and every week, and that's our game plan," Dudzinski said. "That's what we want to do first."
The defensive formation change means junior linebacker Yannick Ngakoue will transition into more of a defensive end role. Last season, he finished with 37 tackles, including 13.5 for loss — a number Dudzinski anticipates will only get higher as he becomes more comfortable in his new position.
"He's a guy who can get off the ball and hopefully create some havoc in the backfield," Dudzinski said.
Coming off a season in which he played just seven games after being suspended at the start of the season, linebacker Abner Logan said he's looking forward to playing within the new scheme.
"I just think that, now that we are in a 4-3, it allows the linebackers to play more downhill," Logan said. "And, out there, I felt a lot better playing against the run, because there's more people on the line, so I really didn't have to take on that many more O-line blocks. I hate O-linemen."
Knowing the style of play in the Big Ten, Logan said his team's new-look defense should be able to compete at a higher level than last season.
"So, if people are going to beat us," he said, "they're going to have to beat us throwing."
Before arriving at Maryland, Dudzinski was the defensive coordinator at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His defenses ranked in the top 20 during a three-year stretch from 2005 to 2007 in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision. The Minutemen were ranked first nationally in scoring defense in 2005.
He was a linebackers coach at Northeastern for two seasons, from 2002-2003, and served as the team's defensive coordinator his last year.
"Keith's high energy. He's got the kids responding to him," Edsall said. "He's passionate, he's smart. He knows it in and out. I'm really excited with what Keith brings to the table, and how he handles the kids and how he approaches the kids, and how they respond. All those things."
It's only Day 1, and Dudzinski said he'll be looking over the film to see just how well his unit adapted to the new system.
It's not the team's ability to keep up athletically and skill-wise he's keeping an eye on. Rather, it's about communication, which he thought went well during the first practice.
"We made some changes, and there's going to be a little bit of a learning curve there," Dudzinski said. "But for the most part, guys know techniques and coverages, and we're just trying to put our guys in the right positions to make plays."