Maryland Hiring Brian Stewart as Defensive Coordinator?

Well, that's a little unexpected.

Terrapins Insider has the confirmation. I'll have more on Stewart when he's officially announced, but until then: he was at Houston the past two seasons as their defensive coordinator, before which he spent two years as the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys. Legitimate, high-level NFL experience is a very good thing, both in recruiting and coaching.

Not sure where the connection to Edsall is, if there is, and I certainly don't see any connection to Maryland. It looks like an "identify a good candidate and hire said candidate" type of search, which isn't a bad thing; we saw how the connections game plays when we were saddled with Gary Crowton and Todd Bradford.

Houston was very good defensively last season, especially given that they play in the Conference of A Thousand Spread Offenses. They weren't very good the year before, but that's standard practice with many coordinators. (And not a great short-term sign, but what can you do?) His defenses at Dallas were both in the top-10 in total defense in his two years there, but he got the boot after two years as a scapegoat of sorts.

The really interesting thing here: he runs the 3-4. At first I thought it might just be because he was under Wade Phillips at Dallas, but no: he took it with him to Houston, too. So ... that's interesting, huh?

More on the way, but the best part about this: a few days ago, West Virginia was telling its recruits that Stewart was the new defensive coordinator. He was largely WVU fans' top choice for the DC spot. Trolling hard on WVU fans? I like him already.