College Park, MD – Maryland head coach DJ Durkin has announced on Tuesday that Chuck Heater and Bryan Stinespring have joined the Terrapin football coaching staff. Heater will serve as the safeties coach and Stinespring will take over as offensive line coach.
Heater, who has spent the past five seasons as Marshall’s defensive coordinator and secondary coach, brings over four decades of college football coaching experience to the Terps. He’s coached three National Championship teams (Notre Dame, 1988; Florida, 2006 and ’08) and has been part of 30 bowl games with a 24-6 record. The programs he’s coached have a combined record of 344-164-4 (.676) and he’s been part of 14 10-win seasons.
Durkin and Heater worked together at Florida during the 2010 season in which the Gators defeated Penn State in the Outback Bowl. Heater served as the co-defensive coordinator/defensive backs coach for a defense that ranked ninth nationally in total defense and 12th against the pass. While on staff with Durkin, Heater helped mentor a pair of Gator defensive backs, Ahmad Black and Janoris Jenkins, who garnered All-America honors.
“Chuck’s record speaks for itself,” said Durkin. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with him first hand and have seen the direct impact he’s made in developing players. Throughout his career, Chuck has played an instrumental role in leading defenses that have performed at extremely high levels.
“Chuck will coach safeties and work closely with Aazaar (Abdul-Rahim), who has done an outstanding job and will coach our cornerbacks,” Durkin continued. “Aazaar’s a great communicator, teacher and leader. I’m excited that these two tremendous coaches will be working together to lead our secondary.”
Stinespring also brings a wealth of experience, having coached in three national championship games (Virginia Tech, 1999; James Madison 2016-17). After spending 26 years on Frank Beamer’s coaching staff at Virginia Tech, Stinespring has spent the past two seasons at James Madison, coaching tight ends in 2016 and serving as the offensive line coach and run game coordinator in 2017. The Dukes went 28-2 in his two seasons at the school, winning the National Title in 2016 and reaching the FCS Championship game this past season.
“We’re excited to add Bryan to our staff as he brings a great deal of experience and a strong familiarity with the DMV area,” said Durkin. “Bryan is extremely well thought of and his tenures at Virginia Tech and James Madison included 25 consecutive winning seasons. With his past success in developing offensive linemen, I’m thrilled that he’ll be leading our unit. He’s a tremendous asset to our program and we’re excited to welcome him to Maryland.”
In addition, Durkin announced that linebackers coach Matt Barnes has added the duties of Special Teams Coordinator. Barnes, who played his college football at Salisbury University, helped guide Jermaine Carter, Jr. to consecutive Honorable Mention All-Big Ten accolades. In addition to working with the defense, Barnes served as a special teams graduate assistant under Durkin at the University of Florida.
