As he has after each Terrapins football home win over the past couple seasons, Randy Edsall walked into the Glazer Auditorium in Gossett Team House on Saturday, sat down for a postgame press conference and began spewing cliched lines.

The fourth-year coach lauded his team after a 38-31 victory over Iowa because his players “just never say die.” He said the Terps stepped up and executed to the best of their ability and played every play as though it was their last. Typical boring, nondescript coachspeak.

Except Saturday afternoon, the overused phrases fit. The Terps had plenty go wrong before and during the homecoming contest with the Hawkeyes, but they never collapsed, fending off each setback and playing one of their most complete games this season.

Though the Terps committed their share of gaffes on the afternoon, their resiliency makes the win, which moved the team to 5-2 and came over a respected Big Ten foe, the most significant victory of the season and one of Edsall’s best moments at the helm in College Park.

After falling behind 14-0, the Terps responded to secure the largest comeback win in Edsall’s tenure. They didn’t sputter when third-string quarterback Perry Hills was forced into action. And when Iowa threatened to take the lead back late in the fourth quarter, the Terps defense made a fourth-down stop to help hold off the Hawkeyes.

The Terps overcame each emotionally and physically taxing trail to put away an Iowa team that had just one loss entering the weekend and blew out Indiana a week earlier.

“We just knew we’d have to keep fighting,” outside linebacker Yannick Ngakoue said.

If a similar game presented itself in Edsall’s first two seasons, the Terps probably would’ve crumpled and failed to respond to an early deficit or remain sharp with a reserve quarterback under center. So the triumph over the Hawkeyes shows just how far the program has come.

Now the Terps have a veteran defense, which patched up its issues after allowing two early scores. Also, Hills — who was moved into a second-string role after backup Caleb Rowe tore his ACL on Tuesday and entered the game when starter C.J. Brown went down with a back injury — has been in College Park for three years and felt comfortable filling in.

And they have a tough leader in Brown, who played poorly at points Saturday but returned to the game in the fourth quarter to polish off a win.

“I know our guys have a tremendous amount of respect for him, and he’s a tough cookie,” Edsall said of Brown. “He gets criticized, but the guy’s a winner. The guy’s a winner, and he’s going to compete and do everything he can.”

Still, Brown dug an early hole for his team when he threw an interception on the game’s first play from scrimmage to give Iowa the ball at the Terps’ 32-yard line. Iowa took advantage of the field position to score a touchdown, and on the Hawkeyes’ next possession, the Terps defense blew a coverage downfield. Soon, the Hawkeyes led by two touchdowns.

But the Terps didn’t change much schematically. They just kept plugging away and scored 24 unanswered points while the defense clamped down.

And when Hills was forced into the action, the Terps remained composed. The third-stringer was far from spectacular but didn’t turn the ball over and connected with Stefon Diggs on a short pass that the wide receiver turned into a 53-yard touchdown.

“We just knew everything was going to be OK,” Ngakoue said. “I felt deep down that C.J. was going to be OK, and he was. I feel like Perry came in, Perry stepped in and did a great job. I feel like C.J. came back and executed. It was rolling on all cylinders.”

As the quarterbacks held the team together and the defense stiffened down the stretch, Diggs’ long touchdown and cornerback Will Likely’s pick-six helped the Terps mount a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter.

Then they hung on for a victory so impressive that a room full of reporters could, for once, stomach Edsall’s string of cliches.