Maryland football offensive coordinator Walt Bell stood at the podium Wednesday afternoon at Maryland Stadium and joked he wanted quarterback Perry Hills to face some adversity.
The Terps’ first-year play-caller watched the redshirt senior grasp his up-tempo scheme and expectations in the offseason. Then Hills won the starting job during fall camp. Through the team’s first two games, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native has completed 73 percent of his passes without turning the ball over — a stark contrast from Maryland’s nation-leading 29 interceptions in 2015.
Yet Bell is interested to see how the Terps will respond when matchups aren’t quite as “tailor-made” as their first two contests have appeared. While Bell conceded he wouldn’t mind a few more games of top execution, he and the rest of the Terps have said throughout the week they expect Saturday’s outing at University of Central Florida — the Terps’ nonconference finale — to be their toughest so far.
“This is the most talented team we’ve played thus far this year,” coach DJ Durkin said. “We’ve got to play our best game thus far this year.”
In wins against Howard and Florida International, the Terps rushing defense has held its opponents to an average of 135.5 yards per game on the ground. The team said this week, however, that UCF’s ground attack could pose a bigger threat.
The Knights totaled 275 rushing yards against No. 4 Michigan last Saturday, out-gaining the Wolverines by 156 yards in that category. While coach Jim Harbaugh’s squad — Durkin’s previous program — prevailed with a 51-14 victory, UCF coach Scott Frost said after the game his team “out-hit” Michigan.
Durkin is familiar with Frost’s tactics. The two know each other from recruiting on the West Coast. Frost was an offensive assistant at Oregon from 2009 to 2015, including a three-season stint as the Ducks’ offensive coordinator. Durkin is a former defensive assistant at Stanford.
The Terps’ leader sees flashes of Frost’s previous coaching experience in UCF’s operations, especially through the hurry-up system Frost helped popularize in his time with the Ducks.
“They create really good ways to run the football, they take shots down the field in play action and, you know, everywhere he’s been, they’ve been very productive offensively,” Durkin said. “That’s a big test for us on defense to limit that.”
Last weekend, though, Michigan managed to limit the Knights’ offensive rhythm.
UCF’s two quarterbacks — Nick Patti and Justin Holman — combined to complete six of their 22 passes for 56 total yards. This week, the signal caller will face a Terps secondary that benefited from the return of cornerback JC Jackson, a former four-star recruit who joined the Terps this summer but missed the season opener due to an academic issue.
Jackson is one of seven players in the unit who hail from Florida. The defensive backfield’s leader, cornerback Will Likely, a Belle Glade, Florida, native, spoke last week about the group’s excitement to play two consecutive weeks in their home state.
“Whoever made that schedule,” Likely said, “I love them for that.”
With the bye week looming next week before Big Ten play starts, the Terps have tried to reflect that light mood.
Hills smiled as he talked about Bell telling him he couldn’t wait to see an interception. Hills knows his coach is eager to see how he reacts to a lapse, though he’s pleased the Terps have played with few errors thus far.
“It’s going to be a bigger challenge for us this week than it has the past two weeks,” Hills said.
