ORLANDO, Fla. — On the Maryland football team’s first snap of its second-overtime possession Saturday night against Central Florida, quarterback Perry Hills dove forward for a one-yard gain. The referees blew their whistles, and his teammates turned to regroup for the next play. Hills didn’t get up.
As Hills lay on his back with trainers tending to his upper body — coach DJ Durkin said after the game he thought the redshirt senior suffered a shoulder injury — quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome prepared to enter the huddle.
The Terps faced a 2nd-and-9 from the 24-yard line. After forcing Knights quarterback McKenzie Milton to fumble on UCF’s previous possession, Durkin instructed his true freshman to be cautious with the ball. The Terps could settle for a field goal to win the game.
“He’s probably looking at me like, ‘Yeah, don’t worry about that. I’m going to score,'” Durkin said in a postgame interview. The first-year coach was smiling as he recalled Pigrome taking the snap and weaving 24 yards into the end zone to seal the 30-24 double-overtime victory.
The team swarmed toward Pigrome in the corner of Bright House Network Stadium in front of the Knights marching band section, celebrating its third win in three tries under Durkin — the same total the team managed in 12 outings last year.
“That’s us,” Durkin said. “That’s our team. I believe — I really do — we’ll figure out a way somehow. Ugly, whatever it is, we don’t care. We’ll just figure out a way.”
Hills and the offense struggled for much of regulation to generate yards against a UCF defense that limited No. 4 Michigan to 119 rushing yards a week prior. The Terps ended the first quarter with 27 combined yards, and the Knights posted 10 more yards than offensive coordinator Walt Bell’s unit in regulation.
But the fifth-year signal caller handled the production after the Terps lost the overtime coin toss and started on offense for their first extended contest since 2013.
Hills powered for gains of six and 14 yards before capping the drive with a five-yard plunge, faking the handoff to running back Kenneth Goins Jr. to break the 17-17 tie. Kicker Adam Greene, who converted on two of his four field goal attempts in regulation, hammered in the extra point.
Maryland’s defense looked to have stopped coach Scott Frost’s up-tempo attack on the return possession. But on 3rd-and-16, Knights reserve quarterback McKenzie Milton, who made the first start of his freshman season Saturday night, launched a 31-yard pass to wide receiver Tre’Quan Smith to re-knot the game.
Cornerback Will Likely, who finished with a career-high 14 tackles, thought Smith stepped out of bounds on the route Likely shadowed on the play.
“I don’t know if they reviewed it or not, but he kind of ran out of bounds,” said Likely, who trainers helped off the field after the play. “I pushed him out, so my understanding, I thought he was ineligible and they just threw it out there.”
Likely returned to the field after a short break, though, because the Knights started the second extra period on offense. Again facing a third down, Milton rolled out to pass. This time, he lost control of the ball on what looked to be a pump fake, and defensive lineman Kingsley Opara recovered it to deny the Knights a chance to pull ahead.
“I didn’t see the play because I was kind of covered on my guy,” Likely said, admitting he watched the replay on the jumbotron while the officials reviewed the turnover. “I just heard the crowd got silent and when you only hear our sideline yelling and stuff, that’s always a good thing.”
The Terps’ sideline and crowd, a smattering of red in the stands behind the team’s bench and around the south end zone, erupted again moments later as Pigrome took the reigns and charged across the goal line for the victory.
“It was awesome,” linebacker Shane Cockerille said of the postgame locker room atmosphere. “[Durkin] was yelling, screaming. Everybody’s happy, smiling, you know, a few people crying out of joy. It was an awesome experience. Great to get this third win.”
