What a pair of backup quarterbacks started, the defense finished for the Maryland football team.
Billy Edwards Jr. and Cameron Edge sparked the offense to 24 points in the first half, Glendon Miller returned an interception for a touchdown in the third quarter and the rest of his defensive teammates polished off a 31-13 victory over Auburn on Saturday afternoon before an announced 50,008 in the Music City Bowl at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee.
The result gave the Terps (8-5) three wins in three consecutive bowls for the first time in program history, which included triumphs in the 2021 Pinstripe Bowl and the 2022 Duke’s Mayo Bowl. The last time the school enjoyed victories in three consecutive bowls occurred during a stretch when Maryland won the 2002 Peach Bowl, the 2003 Gator Bowl and the 2006 Champs Sports Bowl.
The Terps also registered back-to-back seasons of eight wins for the first time since 2002 and 2003 when those squads collected 11 and 10 victories, respectively.
Maryland got inspired efforts from several players. With redshirt senior quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa — the school’s career leader in passing yards, touchdown passes and 300-yard games — choosing to skip the bowl game to concentrate on his objective of making himself an appealing NFL prospect, the offense was forced to turn to Edwards and Edge, a pair that had combined for only 13 pass attempts entering Saturday.
In the first half, Edwards, a redshirt sophomore who transferred from Wake Forest, and Edge, a redshirt freshman, completed 9 of 16 passes for 201 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Edwards also carried the ball seven times for 42 yards and a score in the first 30 minutes, becoming the first Terps quarterback with a touchdown pass and run in a bowl game since Scott McBrien in the 2004 Gator Bowl.
Coach Mike Locksley hardly seemed surprised by their showings.
“I’m really happy with the way the quarterbacks performed, both of those guys,” he said. “Now, there were some great learning moments, and being able to use technology is kind of a gift and curse because I saw the underthrow Billy had earlier in the game and saw the decision he made right before the half in [the] two-minute [situation]. It was a lot of great teaching and learning throughout the course of this game, and I saw some of our young guys, including our quarterbacks, grow up today.”
On the offense’s first two possessions of the game, Edwards directed the unit to touchdowns — a 2-yard run by himself and a 5-yard pass to redshirt freshman tight end Preston Howard. When Edge replaced Edwards for the third series, he capitalized on a 57-yard connection with junior wide receiver Kaden Prather before finding freshman tight end Dylan Wade for a 3-yard touchdown pass.
Their performances staked Maryland to a 21-0 advantage in the first 12 minutes of the game and marked the most points scored in the first quarter in the school’s bowl history. Even after the Tigers scored their first and only touchdown on a 3-yard pass from junior quarterback Payton Thorne to senior tight end Brandon Frazier with less than three minutes left in the second quarter, Edwards guided the Terps on a 38-yard march to set up a 49-yard field goal by redshirt sophomore kicker Jack Howes with eight seconds remaining.
Not only was that field goal the longest of Howes’ career, but it was also the longest in Maryland’s bowl history. The previous mark of 48 yards had been shared by Jess Atkinson against Tennessee in the 1983 Florida Citrus Bowl and Nick Novak against Tennessee in the 2002 Peach Bowl.
Edwards finished the game with only six completions on 20 attempts for 126 yards and one touchdown but led the team in rushing with 50 yards and the one score on 13 carries. Edge was 4 of 6 for 82 yards and one touchdown and one interception.
Edwards joked that he didn’t think he played “very well.”
“I just tried to go out there and do my job to the best of my ability,” he said. “Obviously I was very grateful for the opportunity. I think the biggest thing for my mind going into this game, I just put a lot of pressure on myself, but I just wanted to win for these older guys. Being not a younger guy, but someone that’s got more years eligibility, I think that was just the main thing in mind for me. I think we left a lot of meat on the bone and there’s a lot to improve from, but I’m not going to take away from that.”
Redshirt sophomore running back Roman Hemby, an Edgewood resident and John Carroll graduate, carried the ball seven times for 17 yards and caught one pass for 61 yards that contributed to Edwards’ game-opening touchdown run.
In the second half, the offense managed just 41 yards and three first downs on 25 plays. But that unit’s quiet showing was offset by Miller — a redshirt junior cornerback who started in place of senior Tarheeb Still, who also opted out of the bowl — when he intercepted Thorne’s pass intended for redshirt freshman wide receiver Caleb Burton III and returned it 44 yards for a touchdown early in the third quarter.
Miller’s pick-six was the program’s first in a bowl game since Curome Cox returned an interception 54 yards in the 2002 Peach Bowl and the first in any game since RaVon Davis returned one 37 yards in a 52-51 overtime loss to Ohio State on Nov. 17, 2018. Redshirt freshman safety Lavain Scruggs, a Baltimore native and Archbishop Spalding graduate, collected the defense’s second interception of the second half when he picked off redshirt freshman and backup quarterback Holden Geriner early in the fourth quarter.
“Overall, I’d say our defense was playing fast and physical,” said Miller, who also made three tackles. “We just wanted to come out there and play fast and impose our will. I would say with the play, I just told myself before the day, just don’t try to do anything extra, just do my job, and plays will make itself. Then it happened. Just ran for my life.”
The special teams added two takeaways in the second half. Senior cornerback Rex Fleming dislodged the ball from junior return specialist Brian Battie during a kick return and redshirt freshman cornerback Perry Fisher pounced on it in the third quarter. And senior linebacker Sean Greely, a Havre de Grace native and graduate, recovered a muffed punt in the fourth.
Thorne, a Michigan State transfer, completed 13 of 27 passes for 84 yards and one touchdown but was sacked three times and lost 5 yards on nine carries before getting pulled for Geriner early in the fourth quarter. Burton led all receivers with a game-high 78 yards on five receptions.
But the Tigers (6-7) dropped their fourth consecutive bowl game and have not triumphed since the 2018 Music City Bowl when that squad blasted Purdue, 63-14. Coach Hugh Freeze bemoaned a rushing offense that was held to 76 yards after averaging 198.4 during the regular season.
“It starts there,” he said. “We have to go look at the run schemes that we had, and did we not play hard up front? It’s really hard for me to tell. But they really dominated the line of scrimmage against us.”
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Maryland football beats Auburn, 31-13, in Music City Bowl behind pair of backup quarterbacks, defense - Baltimore Sun
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