Keith Dudzinski (born November 17, 1968) is an American college football coach and former player. He is the defensive coordinator at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...

(UMass), a position he held from 2004 to 2010 and resumed in 2022. Dudzinski served as the defensive coordinator at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

in 2015.

Playing career

Dudzinski played outside

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

at the University of New Haven. There he was an All-New England linebacker and served as team captain during his senior season.

Coaching career

Dudzinski's coaching career began at his alma mater in 1991, serving as the team's outside linebackers coach until 1993. In

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

he joined the Brown Bears staff where he served as the defensive line coach until after the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

season. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

he joined the UMass staff as the defensive line coach. In

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

he served as the team’s linebackers coach. In 2001 he coached the team’s defensive backs. In 2002 he went with Don Brown to Northeastern and was named the team’s linebackers coach. In 2003 he was promoted to defensive coordinator. In 2004 he went back to UMass where he served as the team’s defensive coordinator until the end of the 2010 season. In 2011 he joined the Maryland Terps as their inside linebackers coach. In 2015 he was promoted to the team’s defensive coordinator, however he was only in the role for one season. In 2016 he joined the staff at Albany where his son was playing and became the team’s safeties coach. In 2018 he was promoted to assistant head coach and defensive coordinator. In

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

he worked as a defensive analyst for the Michigan Wolverines. In

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

he followed Brown once again and became the special team’s coordinator and outside linebackers coach for the Arizona Wildcats. At the end of

he did it again, and followed Brown back to UMass and became the team’s defensive coordinator.

Personal life

Dudzinski and his wife, Katherine, have two daughters, Mary Kathryn and Elizabeth, and a son, Jack, who played offensive line for Albany from 2014 to 2018.

References

External links

UMass profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dudzinski, Keith 1968 births Living people American football linebackers Albany Great Danes football coaches Arizona Wildcats football coaches Brown Bears football coaches New Haven Chargers football coaches New Haven Chargers football players Maryland Terrapins football coaches Michigan Wolverines football coaches Northeastern Huskies football coaches UMass Minutemen football coaches Sportspeople from Bridgeport, Connecticut Players of American football from Fairfield County, Connecticut Coaches of American football from Connecticut