In the wake of the Terrapin football team’s 24-7 bowl win against Purdue, senior quarterback Sam Hollenbach basked in the spotlight as he and his teammates celebrated and held the Champs Sports Bowl trophy in the air.

The win was a culmination of the progress and positives built up throughout the entire season and the extinguishing of two years worth of frustration that stemmed from missing bowl games. Finishing 9-4 with their most complete performance of the season, the Terps left fans with an optimistic lasting impression about the 2006 team that had no breakout stars and few expectations.

“Everybody always says you’re only as good as your last game,” sophomore linebacker Erin Henderson said. “If we would have had to lose three straight, who knows how our morale would have been as a team going into [next] season. You go out and get a win like that, then a lot of people start to feel good about the program and start to feel good about our team.”

As a capper to the program’s first winning season since 2003, Hollenbach had the best game of his career, showing again just how vital he was to the Terps’ success. All season, the Terps won when Hollenbach didn’t make mistakes. Against Purdue, the senior quarterback was almost perfect, earning MVP honors with his two touchdowns and 223 passing yards.

And while Hollenbach was the star, the Terps’ bowl rout perhaps most exemplified the future of the program, highlighted by the stellar nights of young players who will be back next year.

“This gave us a chance to go out here and show what we can do and I think it’s just rubbing off on the other guys,” redshirt freshman wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey said. “The young guys on this team are ready to go.”

Freshman fullback Cory Jackson bulldozed his way out of anonymity with powerful running skills and his first career touchdown run. Heyward-Bey caught the 46-yard touchdown pass that put an exclamation point on the win.

The same defense that was torn apart by Wake Forest shut down one of the nation’s most potent offenses, with Henderson forcing a key third-quarter fumble. Henderson’s role will probably be amplified next season, given junior Wesley Jefferson’s departure to become a state trooper.

In a crazy ACC marked by upsets and the lack of an elite team, the Terps blazed to a five-game winning streak after a slow start.

On the ground, juniors Lance Ball and Keon Lattimore illustrated the strength of their running back tandem, while Heyward-Bey caught a 96-yard pass against Miami and spent the second half of the season living up to high school hype and showing off his blazing speed.

Two season-ending losses kept the Terps from reaching the ACC championship game and what coach Ralph Friedgen called “something special.”

“If we had played like this the last two weeks, we probably would’ve won the championship,” Friedgen said after the bowl game. “The fact that we’re 9-4, with the schedule we have, is a heck of a season.”

Questions surely remain about the Terps with spring practice two months away, from Friedgen’s position as offensive coordinator to replacing defensive standouts Jefferson and Josh Wilson. But those seem like they can be answered with less controversy than the biggest question heading into next season: Who will take over for Hollenbach?

Friedgen has said Jordan Steffy will begin spring practice as the starting quarterback, ahead of Florida transfer Josh Portis, because of his experience in the program.

“I think it’s Jordan’s job to lose. Jordan has paid his dues here,” Friedgen said. “I think he’ll be ahead of Josh right now just from being in meetings and taking the reps. I don’t think we can go any other way right now, and then we’ll see what happens after that.”

The quarterback position is sure to be a talking point from now until the Terps open the season in September. But no matter who is under center, the young Terps have set the bar higher for 2007 than they had for the 2006 season.

“Now we’re gonna have that confidence and a lot of people are gonna realize they’re more than capable of coming out and playing Division I football,” Henderson said. “And I think that’s really gonna make a big difference going into the off-season and workouts, knowing that if we work hard and we continue to get better that were gonna take our game to the next level. Now that people understand that, I think the sky’s definitely the limit for this team.”

Contact reporter Stephen Whyno at whynodbk@gmail.com.