Don Brown, whose attacking defense was one of the most improved units among Football Bowl Subdivision teams in 2010, will return for his third season at Maryland and his first under new coach Randy Edsall.
A former head coach at Massachusetts, Brown, 55, had been rumored to be among several assistants on Ralph Friedgen's staff who were considering joining former offensive coordinator James Franklin at Vanderbilt. There was also speculation that Brown was being considered for a head coaching job at Elon University.
But one day after Edsall was introduced as Friedgen's successor in College Park, Edsall announced during a radio interview with ESPN 980 in Washington that Brown and wide receivers coach Lee Hull were being retained. No other decisions regarding Edsall's staff have been made, athletic department spokesman Shawn Nestor said Tuesday.
Brown had said before the team's Military Bowl victory over East Carolina that he wanted to "finish what we started."
Edsall did not comment in a statement released by the school's sports information department and was not available for comment, Nestor said.
That Edsall was able to convince Brown to stay could be an indication that the former Connecticut coach will use Brown's system that revolves around multiple blitz packages and is predicated on creating turnovers.
A large part of Maryland's success last season, when the Terps went from 2-10 in 2009 to 9-4 in 2010, was in the improvement of its defense. Maryland jumped from 83rd overall in 2009 to 40th, including from 66th in rushing defense to 22nd and from 89th in forcing turnovers (18) to 15th (27th). As a result, the scoring defense went from 100th (31.25) to 38th (22.15).
The announcement involving Brown coincided with Connecticut defensive coordinator Hank Hughes being named interim coach of the Huskies.
While the Maryland defense will have to replace All-ACC linebacker Alex Wujciak, among others, the offense will have find a successor for wide receiver Torrey Smith, who announced after the Miltary Bowl win that he will forego his senior season to enter the NFL draft.
Edsall said Monday that he talked with Connecticut offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead and special teams coach Lyndon Johnson about coming with him to College Park. Moorhead was hired two years ago from Akron after Rob Ambrose left to become head coach of Towson, Maryland's season-opening opponent in 2011.
Meanwhile, one of Maryland's top returning defensive players said on his Twitter account Tuesday that the rest of Maryland's assistant coaches are not coming back.
Terps defensive tackle A.J. Francis tweeted, "All the coaches that are leaving, we love y'all man.... Coach Sea-Mo, Lempa, Bratton, & Sollazzo."
Francis was referring to linebackers coach Al Seamonson, safeties coach Kevin Lempa, offensive line coach Tom Brattan and defensive line coach/recruiting coordinator Dave Sollazzo.
Edsall said during his introductory news conference Monday that his staff will be made up of some of his former assistants at Connecticut, some of Friedgen's former assistants and others who are not associated with either school.
Baltimore Sun reporter Jeff Barker contributed to this article.