Nick Ferrara

With the memory of a season spent on the bench only adding to the uncertainty stemming from a shanked chip shot just minutes earlier in the fourth quarter, the possibility of failure was very real as kicker Nick Ferrara stepped up to a potential game-winning field goal with 99 seconds left on the clock Monday night.

“I think sometimes Nick is his own worst enemy when he thinks too much,” Terrapins football coach Randy Edsall said of the junior.

If there were nerves, they didn’t show. Ferrara took advantage of the opportunity to get his career in College Park off to a fresh start, knocking home a 32-yard field goal that proved decisive and putting to rest a sophomore season he’d just as soon forget.

“It made me go harder at it,” Ferrara said this preseason of a year spent mainly watching Travis Baltz do his old job. “I’m just really a lot more focused than I was last year.

“All of last year I feel like it’s a blur. We were watching film on it and it was like I wasn’t even here last season.”

Considering the roller-coaster Ferrara has ridden since arriving in College Park, Monday’s performance in the Terps’ 32-24 victory served as a fitting transition back into the limelight.

After starting for the Terps in a successful freshman campaign in 2009, a preseason groin injury left Ferrara behind Baltz as the team’s No. 2 place-kicker last season.

And while he remained in uniform as a kickoff specialist after his injury, Ferrara didn’t attempt a single field goal.

With that frustration fresh in his memory, Ferrara’s performance to lead the Terps over Miami proved a best-case scenario for his confidence.

“It builds up. It’s definitely a stepping stone, a first step just to build on and just keep going forward,” Ferrara said Monday night. “It’s perfect I got off on the right foot because that’s important for a kicker.”

That confidence boost became only more important for the colorful kicker considering the position he had put his team in early in the fourth quarter.

After the Terps’ offense stalled — again — in Miami’s red zone, Ferrara was unable to convert a short field goal that would have put the Terps ahead by five points.

Instead, the Hurricanes took over and marched down the field for a go-ahead field goal.

But after quarterback Danny O’Brien connected on a long strike down the right sideline to wide receiver Kevin Dorsey, Ferrara got his second chance. And this time, despite increasingly heavy rainfall and mounting pressure as the clock ticked down, he delivered.

“It’s probably one of the most difficult things for kickers when it’s rainy weather because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Ferrara said. “[But] as soon as I went in, I was just comfortable.”

Ferrara admitted afterward that the pressure of kicking in front of a packed stadium still sneaks into his mind — “Every single play is hit or miss,” he said — but converting a field goal of that magnitude in front of 52,875 and a national television audience could mitigate the impact of any additional pressure he may face down the road.

His performance Monday wasn’t flawless — Ferrara’s short kickoffs often yielded solid field position for the Hurricanes and drew criticism from Edsall in his teleconference yesterday — but Ferrara showed his potential to help lead the Terps’ special teams as the squad looks to reach new heights under its first-year coach.

“I have a lot of confidence in Nick,” Edsall said. “Nick has the ability, and I have complete confidence in him once we get into his range.”

TERPS NOTE: Edsall announced yesterday that defensive end Isaiah Ross and tight end Dave Stinebaugh will have surgery in the coming days.

Stinebaugh’s shoulder surgery will end his season, while Ross’s appears less dire. Edsall didn’t elaborate on Ross’s injury, but the junior put no weight on his left leg as he was helped off the field on Monday.

cwalsh@umdbk.com