Hills has struggled against two poor defenses out of the FCS and MAC conferences and the loss to Bowling Green in embarrassing fashion pushed Randy Edsall over the edge. Entering training camp, he was considered by many the frontrunner to begin the season under center for Maryland but was beat out by Hills in a month-long quarterback competition. Jacobs said the coaching staff urged the wide receivers and the rest of the offense to work with each quarterback as much as they could in the offseason so that any changes could be made as smoothly as possible.
Advertisement
Caleb Rowe #7 of the Maryland Terrapins and teammates celebrate a touchdown in … Not only was Hills removed from the starter’s job, but he was apparently bumped down to third string, with graduate transfer Daxx Garman listed as the Terps’ backup. Hills was yanked during the fourth quarter against Bowling Green after throwing an interception near midfield with the Terps trailing by a touchdown. Then again, everyone in the stadium knew he was going to put the ball in the air.
“We’ve got to be able to throw the football”, Edsall said. Edsall addressed the offense’s issues on Sunday, noting that Maryland must improve its ability to stretch the field both horizontally and vertically.
On Saturday, he starts from the outset, and with Moore and Jacobs stepping in for Amba Etta-Tawo and Malcolm Culmer. The same thing with Taivon. He threw four touchdowns against two interceptions, but he completed only 53 percent of his passes and averaged 5.6 yards per attempt, more than two yards fewer than he averaged in six starts as a freshman.
Now that he realized that can’t be done, he’s reverted back to the guy who’s got a stronger arm, someone who doesn’t panic when his pass protection collapses and the quarterback who’s been Johnny-on-the-spot over the past two seasons. “When things aren’t going our way, we try to strain to do something outside of ourselves”.
Advertisement
The Terps practiced Tuesday morning, and while Edsall said those practices usually don’t go as smoothly as others because it’s the first day of a new game plan being implemented and the players have Monday off, there were less mistakes than there were a week before for Bowling Green. “All you change is what we do from here”, said senior kicker Brad Craddock, one of the team leaders. “Forget about it, move on to the next one”.
