Rob Vaughn will take over as Maryland baseball’s head coach, the team announced Thursday. Vaughn, 29, has been on the Maryland coaching staff since 2012 and will replace John Szefc, who left the program June 9 to take a head coaching job at Virginia Tech. 

“I’m thrilled to be able to continue what we started under coach Szefc the last couple years,” Vaughn said Thursday. “Maryland’s a special place… built around really good people and doing things the right way. That’s something that we’ve done over the last five years and something we’re going to continue to do.”

Vaughn, who was promoted to associate head coach last year, has spent most of his time in College Park as the Terps’ hitting coach. He has been instrumental in the program’s recent success, building an offensive unit that he calls “The Pack.” In The Pack, each player has a different role: run, drive in runs, or execute, or a combination of the three. This philosophy has proven successful; since Vaughn took over, the Terps have made three NCAA Tournaments, two super regionals and set a program record 42 wins in 2015.

Under his tutelage, Maryland has thrived offensively, eclipsing 300 runs in all but one year since 2013 and hitting at least 50 homers twice, in 2015 and 2017. Vaughn has helped the Terps utilize their speed on the basepaths as well. In his five years on staff, Maryland has finished second in the conference in stolen bases three times, including this season with 101 steals.

Vaughn has mentored several successful Terps’ hitters, including Brandon Lowe and Kevin Smith, two top-five round picks in the 2015 and 2017 MLB Drafts, respectively, who put up impressive numbers in their time at Maryland.

He inherits a coaching staff without pitching coach Ryan Fecteau and assistant Corey Haines, who both accompanied Szefc to Blacksburg. It is the second time in as many years that Maryland will conduct a search for a new pitching coach, but Vaughn isn’t worried, saying that he was determined to find coaches that share his vision for the program, even if it takes time to finalize the staff.

He also emphasized that he expects returning players to step into a larger role in the coming season.

“I want this to be a player-led team, not a coach-led team,” Vaughn said. “When you have guys like [Justin Morris] and [Zach Jancarski] and [AJ Lee], they know what’s expected and those are the guys that will take over.”

The Humble, Texas, native made it clear, however, that each player will have to work to earn their role on the team, and no preferential treatment will be given to veterans such as Morris, Jancarski or senior right-hander Taylor Bloom.

“This team is coming off a successful five-year stint, I don’t think anybody would argue that,” Vaughn said. “My biggest thing for [the team] to understand is the group assembled in the fall of 2017 hasn’t earned anything yet. That’s something we’ve been really good at is that there hasn’t been any complacency in this program; whether its in the classroom, whether its on the field, you get what you deserve.”

In addition to serving as the hitting coach and associate head coach, Vaughn has spearheaded Maryland’s recruiting efforts while on staff. In 2015, D1Baseball ranked the Terps’ recruiting class as the 17th best in the nation, the highest mark in program history. He has helped bring in players such as Marty Costes and Tyler Blohm, who received Freshman All-American honors in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

A native of Humble, Texas, Vaughn played four years at Kansas State, helping lead the Wildcats to their first ever NCAA Tournament berth, before being drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 30th round of the MLB Draft in 2009. He spent parts of two seasons in the White Sox organization before returning to Kansas State in 2010 as an assistant coach, where he worked on a coaching staff with Szefc. Vaughn came to College Park in 2012 shortly after Szefc was hired as head coach.