Maryland football offensive lineman Michael Dunn has a checklist before each play.
He waits for the ball to be snapped and makes his assigned block. That hasn’t changed from his approach in his previous three seasons as a Terp, but what comes next has.
He hustles to where referees spotted the ball, hunches over in his two-point stance and starts the cycle again. There’s no waiting around, huddling or dwelling on the previous play.
The Terps had 12 offensive possessions in their game against Howard, and while seven drives ended in points, none lasted more than three minutes and 50 seconds. That’s the tempo offensive coordinator Walt Bell has preached throughout the offseason and wants to see the team build on when it plays Friday night at Florida International.
“Go, go, go,” Dunn said. “In previous years, we always tried going fast, but I feel like we’ve never been able to reach this level of speed.”
Bell used to measure the success of his unit’s quickness by how many plays they logged per game. But that didn’t account for long gains or explosive plays, aspects that would contribute to efficient drives but not require as many snaps.
Instead, the former Arkansas State offensive coordinator has a timeline for how fast his players should be operating.
If the Terps aren’t making substitutions between plays, and if the referee doesn’t linger around the line of scrimmage after spotting the ball, Bell expects the Terps to snap the ball with 29 or 30 seconds left on the 40-second play clock.
Should the Terps change personnel, Bell allows about five to seven extra seconds to tick off.
“During practice, we try to make it as hard on us as possible,” quarterback Perry Hills said. “Trying to get the ball snapped under 10 seconds every single time, flying around.”
In Saturday’s 52-13 win against Howard, the Terps produced six drives of at least eight plays. The sequences averaged to be about two minutes and 58 seconds long.
Already touting a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, the offense managed an eight-play, 76-yard drive in 3:02 with Hills completing 19- and 16-yard passes. Running back Ty Johnson capped the possession with a 21-yard touchdown run.
As the Terps rotated through reserves after intermission — Bell admitted the moves forced him to slow the tempo at times — quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome spelled Hills and continued the downfield attack, logging two 25-yard completions on a drive that ended in 3:10 with his rushing touchdown.
“Our guys did a great job of focusing on what we emphasized, which was ‘Let’s come out and play fast, have enthusiasm for what we’re doing,'” coach DJ Durkin said.
Hills said he appreciated the effort his teammates showed in maintaining the attack’s tempo. Watching his offensive linemen rush down the field for extra blocks and quick snaps made him want to play harder.
To keep up, Dunn said the linemen have worked on their agility. They use bands to stretch their hips and have emphasized flexibility training to recover from weight-lifting sessions. Plus, Dunn sc said he’s playing at a lower weight because he was in constant motion throughout the spring and fall camps.
In those preseason workouts, Durkin tried to schedule practices at the hottest times of day. Bell hopes the grueling conditions have prepared his unit to increase its tempo this weekend in the Florida humidity.
“There’s an incredible amount of work to do,” Bell said. “We are by no means a finished product.”
