There was not much to be proud of with Maryland’s home loss over the weekend to Bowling Green, but head coach Randy Edsall is pulling the trigger on a quarterback change. Perry Hills is out, and Caleb Rowe is in.
Rowe is now listed as the team’s starter on Maryland’s updated depth chart, with Hillis being bumped down to third behind transfer Daxx Garman. That is quite a change for the offense after two games, but the change may not be all that undeserved.
Hills completed 15 of his 30 attempts on Saturday against Bowling Green for a total of 168 yards and two touchdowns. He was picked off once. Through two games, Hills had a passer rating inside the red zone of 0.00, with incompletions on all three of his attempts so far this season inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.
Rowe, on the other hand, has already been intercepted twice in his limited opportunities this season. He has completed just one of his four pass attempts for a gain of 17 yards. Rowe did step in at times for Maryland last season, completing 63 percent of his pass attempts for 489 yards and five touchdowns, but he was also intercepted four times. This may not be a huge upgrade at the position for Edsall, but the pressure to find something that works is clearly rising in what was already expected to be a step back year for the Terps considering the talent lost from 2014.