Charlton Runs His First UMaine Practice

The Nick Charlton era of UMaine football began in earnest on this chilly March morning. His first spring practice as Black Bears head coach.

The 30-year-old Charlton admitted "it felt a little different" running spring practice as head coach instead of being an assistant. But, he insists he doing exactly what he's always wanted to do.

He came to Orono from Boston College in March of 2015. The first assignment was as wide receivers coach. He added special teams coordinator a year later.

Charlton was the Black Bears offensive coordinator last season and when head coach Joe Harasymiak was named an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota, Charlton was named head coach just before Christmas.

Since then he's hired four new assistant coaches while moving some current assistants to new positional coaching spots.

It all led up to this morning when he ran the show for two hours as Maine's 36th head coach.

The Black Bears are coming off a historic season, appearing in a first-ever NCAA national semi-final playoff game after winning the CAA conference title.

Quarterback Chris Ferguson returns for his junior year. A lot of the defense returns as well.

The spring schedule calls for 15 practices, leading up to the annual Jeff Cole Memorial Spring Game in April.

The regular season begins with a home game against Sacred Heart Univeristy on August 30th.